Smriti Irani takes over as BJP Mahila Morcha president

Adressing a function to felicitate the 34-year-old, BJP President Nitin Gadkari, who appointed Irani after being impressed with her work in Maharashtra during the last assembly elections, expressed the hope that under her leadership, Mahila Morcha would help in increasing the party's votebank by 10 per cent.

Gadkari said BJP aims to woo women, schedule castes, schedule tribes, unorganised sector workers, minorities and professionals through 'Friends of BJP' to score an impressive victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.Gadkari said every organisation needed to improve its skills and for this training was essential.

In her address, Irani vowed to fulfil this goal."Our party president had said that 2,000 women party workers from across the country should be trained about the party's ideology."I assure him that this will be done," she said at the function at the BJP headquarters here.

The BJP president maintained that other than being a glamourous face on television, Irani was a talented, dedicated and committed party worker.She is popular among the workers, he added.Gadkari said BJP office-holders should treat their appointment as a one day match in which each ball should be hit. Similarly, the BJP leaders should make every day count, he said.

Irani had contested and lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Chandni Chowk constituency of Delhi to Kapil Sibal.A star campaigner of the BJP, she was included in party's new national executive.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the presence of women in BJP national executive and office-bearers had increased after 33 per cent reservation was given to them.

Both Gadkari and Swaraj praised outgoing Mahila Morcha president Kiran Maheshwari, saying she had done commendable work.