BJP selects 4 Karnataka leaders for national office; C T Ravi becomes national general secretary

Four leaders from Karnataka become office bearers in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s new national team in New Delhi on Saturday, as announced by the party.

The BJP on Saturday announced the long-awaited list of its national office-bearers as the party effected a major reshuffle in key organisational positions, gave the team a more pan-India look and brought in new faces, including some seen to be strongly associated with its core ideology.

Read: BJP president JP Nadda announces new team of party office bearers

The state's Tourism Minister C T Ravi will be the national general secretary while Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya will be the national president of the BJP Yuva Morcha.

Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar included in the team of national spokesperson.

B L Santhosh continues to remain a national general secretary of the organisation.

Muralidhara Rao from Telangana, who, earlier, was part of the Karnataka office, was dropped as national general secretary in the reshuffle.

Also Read: Tejasvi Surya appointed as BJP's youth wing president, replaces Poonam Mahajan

There are five new general secretaries among the total eight including Ravi: Dalit leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam, D Purandareshwari of Andhra Pradesh, Tarun Chugh of Punjab, a state where the BJP's ties with ally Akali Dal have nosedived over farm bills, and Dilip Saikia from Assam.

Bhupender Yadav, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arun Singh have retained their position as general secretaries, who occupy a critical position in the organisation as they are often put in charge of states and serve as a link between the regional and central leaderships.

The new spokespersons include former minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rajiv Chandrashekhar, Tom Vadakkan, and young Dalit leader Guru Prakash.

Also Read: Ram Madhav, Uma Bharti dropped as BJP general secretaries

Amit Malviya remains in charge of the party's IT wing.

The new list of spokespersons is more representative of social, caste, regional and religious diversity, a source noted.

However, the party has not filled vacancies in its parliamentary board, its highest decision-making body. Some vacancies in other positions also remain.

(WIth inputs from PTI)