Farmers Movement Archive

Maneka, Varun, Swamy out of top BJP body; Scindia in

NEW DELHI: BJP on Thursday dropped Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, the mother son-duo of Maneka and Varun Gandhi and former Bajrang Dal firebrand Vinay Katiyar from the party’s national executive, in what is seen as a loud assertion of the leadership’s authority. The exclusion of Swamy and Varun as well as that of Birendra Singh, a prominent induction from Congress post-2014, was seen in the context of them being at odds with the party’s stance: both had strayed from the official line to criticise the Centre’s response to protests against the three contentious farm laws. Bengal has found a significant representation with Nadda bringing Mithun Chakraborty, Bharti Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta, Anirban Ganguly and Mukutmani Adhikari to figure among members of the body, in what is a clear indication that the party continues to look the state as land of promise despite the setback it suffered in the polls this May. In keeping with the trajectory where she had earlier made it to the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, women and child development minister Smriti Irani has been brought back in the new national executive, the first one to have been set up by BJP chief JP Nadda. Prominent imports, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Dinesh Trivedi, former Trinamool MP, also figure in the 80-strong committee which, along with the parliamentary board, is considered a key decision- making body. Swamy had for the past several months been taking pot shots at the government’s decisions, besides attacking the party’s office-bearers. Though he steered clear of PM Modi, the carping had clearly sapped the patience of the leadership that had exercised restraint in the face of similar provocations in the past. Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Prahlad Patel have failed to find a seat this time. Dushyant Singh, son of former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, and former Union minister Vijay Goel are two other significant exclusions. Besides Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, who all served as party chiefs, and party veterans LK Advani, M M Joshi are members of deliberative body. Harsh Vardhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, who were recently dropped as Union ministers, have been retained. Senior leaders like Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Nirmala Sitharaman have kept their position. The exclusion of Swamy and Varun Gandhi as well as that of Birendra Singh, a prominent induction from Congress post-2014, was seen in the context of them being at odds with the party's stance. Varun Gandhi and Birendra Singh had strayed from the official line to criticise the government’s response to protests against the three farm laws.

The Times of India

2021-10-08

India