The big BJP shake-up: Who is in, who is out of the saffron party’s top body?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday rejigged its Parliamentary Board, the party’s top decision-making body, and the Central Election Committee (CEC) after eight years.

The restructured parliamentary board now has six new faces, including the first Sikh representative, as several big names were dropped from the body.

While the party dropped Union minister and former party president Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its parliamentary board, it brought in six new members, including former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Punjab leader Iqbal Singh Lalpura.

All 11 members of the Parliamentary Board are also part of the election committee, which has some additional members.

Let’s take a look, who is in and who is out in the rejig that signalled a political and generational shift in the BJP:

BS Yediyurappa

There was a growing resentment among the Lingayat community of Karnataka that the BJP had alienated its representative and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa from state and national politics.

Yediyurappa’s influence over the Lingayat community had handed the assembly elections to the BJP, however, he was asked to resign last year over allegations of corruption.

The party has appeared to distance itself from Yediyurappa and reportedly his son, BY Vijayendra, who also has been denied any positions of significance within the party.

Unhappy over the snubs to Vijayendra, Yediyurappa in July this year had announced that his son would replace him as the candidate from the Shikaripura Assembly constituency in the 2023 election, a Lingayat stronghold.

The BJP’s decision to bring him into the parliamentary board could be seen as a move to placate him ahead of the 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka.

Iqbal Singh Lalpura

A former IPS officer, Lalpura is currently the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities. Lalpura, a BJP spokesperson who hails from Punjab and belongs to the Sikh community, assumed the post in April.

As per NDTV, Lalpura in 1981 was one of three officers who arrested militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, in a case related to a clash between some Sikhs and Nirankari sect members.

Bhindranwale was a militant leader and leading figure of the Khalistan movement who was killed in Operation Blue Star in 1984.

Bhindranwale had agreed to the arrest on the condition that only baptised Sikhs would take him. Lalpura was one of two cops on the team, the other being Jarnail Singh Chahal, besides a sub-divisional magistrate, BS Bhullar.

As per News9, Lalpura was SSP Amritsar, SSP Tarantaran, and Additional inspector general CID Amritsar during his career.

He won several awards such as the president’s police medal, police medal for meritorious services, Shiromani Sikh Sahitkar Award and Sikh scholar award.

In 2012, he retired and joined the BJP.

Sarbananda Sonowal

The former face of BJP in the Northeast and ex-Assam chief minister made it to the parliamentary board on Wednesday.

The prominent tribal leader, Sonowal led the BJP to its historic maiden victory in Assam in 2016. His political career, however, had started in 1992 as a leader of the All Assam Students’ Union. In 2001, he joined the Asom Gana Parishad, becoming an MLA the same year, and then an MP, according to T_he Indian Express._

He earned the moniker of “jatiyo nayak” or national hero after he successfully challenged the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act in the Supreme Court in 2005 as inadequate.

He rose through the ranks of the BJP soon after joining the party in 2011. From becoming the spokesperson and general secretary of the BJP’s Assam unit, he earned the top spot in Sports Ministry in Narendra Modi’s first cabinet in 2014.

Sonowal’s reach and influence among indigenous tribal groups helped the BJP secure the assembly elections and he was the obvious chief ministerial candidate in 2016.

Despite holding the fort on his own during the violent protests against the BJP’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the party leadership dropped him for Himanta Biswa Sarma in 2021.

As he stepped aside for Sarma, Sonowal was given the portfolios of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUSH ministries in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet for a second time.

Satyanarayan Jatiya

A veteran Dalit leader who has been in the BJP good books since as early as the 1980s when he won the Ujjain Lok Sabha seat. Until 2004, he remained undefeated, except in 1984.

His elevation to the parliamentary board coincided with the removal of Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose omission has come as a surprise ahead of the 2023 Assembly election as OBCs form 51 per cent of the state’s population, The Indian Express reported.

Apart from the last two years, when Jatiya has remained largely inactive, the state leader has held prominent positions within the party. He served as the BJP state president between 1987-89. He also held the Social Justice and Labour Department in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Jatiya is known as a learned man of letters. An accomplished poet, Jatya has published a compilation of poems 1995 under the name Alakh. He also organises kavi sammelans, national-level competitions and writes satirical stories for magazines.

Sudha Yadav

A lesser known name among the new entrants in the parliamentary board, Yadav is a former MP from Mahendragarh in Haryana.

A lecturer and mother of two, Yadav was fielded by the BJP in 1999 general elections, soon after her husband, Deputy Commandant Sukhbir Singh Yadav of the Border Security Force died during the Kargil War, The Indian Express reported.

After winning the first election against Congress stalwart Rao Inderjit Singh, Yadav lost the two subsequent polls in 2004 from Mahendragarh and 2009 from Gurgaon.

In 2015, she was named in-charge of the BJP’s OBC Morcha. Since 2019, she has been a member of the National Commission for Backward Classes.

Yadav was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence from 1999 to 2000, as well as a member of the Committee on Official Language, Hindi Salahakar Samiti of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Parliamentary Standing Committee on empowerment of women, and a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Communications.

K Laxman

K Laxman has been a prominent name in BJP Telangana, being the party president of the state unit from 2016 to 2020 and serving as the national president of the party’s OBC Morcha.

In July 2022, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

His induction into the apex body is being seen as a move to attract backward class voters in the poll-bound Telangana.

During Laxman’s tenure as the state party head, the BJP made inroads into Telangana by winning its highest tally ever of four parliamentary seats in the state.

Laxman has served two terms as MLA – 1999 to 2004 from Musheerabad and 2014 to 2018 from Hyderabad.

In the BJP’s ambition to move south, Laxman may play a big role as an OBC face as well as a regional leader. With inputs from agencies