New team of BJP office-bearers likely to be announced soon

Several new faces are likely to enter the BJP parliamentary board, the highest body of the party, as its president J P Nadda appears set to announce a fresh team of office-bearers soon.

Nadda had taken over as party president in January and, sources said, the Covid-19 outbreak has delayed the announcement of the new team of office-bearers.

A senior party leader said the fresh appointments, a customary practice under a new president, will be a mix of continuity and new faces.

Deaths of senior BJP leaders Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and election of another party veteran M Venkaiah Naidu as the country's vice president have caused vacancies in the parliamentary board, and they will be filled soon, sources said.

Swaraj was the only woman member of the board, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is seen by many as a probable replacement to her in the body.

BJP leaders, however, have given no indication about the new faces likely to be inducted in the board and at other levels of the organisational machinery of the party.

There has been speculation about a reshuffle in the Union Council of Ministers and that some office-bearers may join the government and a few ministers may be moved to the party organisation.

The exercise to give the organisation a more youthful look, which had started under Nadda's predecessor Amit Shah, also appears to be over with a top leader asserting that almost all district presidents in the party are under 50 years of age.

In most cases, BJP state presidents are much younger than what they used to be, he added.