Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi have been dropped from the 80-member National Executive. The list was released by the party's national president JP Nadda on Thursday. While Maneka is a Lok Sabha MP from Sultanpur, her son Varun represents Pilibhit in the Lower House.
The list has the names of the party's top brass, ranging from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to many Union Ministers, several state leaders and veterans like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
Besides 80 regular members, the executive will also have 50 special invitees and 179 permanent invitees. The executive is a key deliberative body of the party which meets to discuss key issues facing the government and shapes the organisation's agenda. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented its meeting for a long time.
Many Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, are expectedly on the list with recently inducted minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also being included. Former Union ministers like Harsh Vardhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar also remain members of the national executive.
The National Executive sets the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. It is composed of members appointed by the BJP president.
Meanwhile, the next National Executive meeting will be held on November 7 in Delhi. The meeting is held every year. It is considered to be the BJP’s constitutional mechanism for internal democracy. The last time the ruling party called a full-fledged National Executive conclave was in January 2019.
