Move to shift Jaitley intriguing

TNN / Jan 30, 2007, 02:30 IST

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BJP on Monday diumped RSS deputee Sanjay Joshi as general secretary.

NEW DELHI: BJP on Monday diumped RSS deputee Sanjay Joshi as general secretary. Apart from Joshi's fall from grace, the decision to shift senior leader Arun Jaitley from the chief spokesperson's job is seen to deprive the party of a media savvy face.
Though Jaitley has been given a leg up by being made secretary to the parliamentary board, a key and powerful post, the decision to move him from spokesperson's post smacks of inner-party intrigue.His media appearances are seen to fuel insecurities of his critics.
The BJP spokespersons' panel is now led by former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, assisted by two relatively inexperienced colleagues, Prakash Javdekar and Rajiv Pratap Rudi. The combination of Jaitley and Prasad was seen as fairly effective.
Given that BJP tends to take unpopular stands on issues ranging from quotas to illegal immigration, it needs assertive spokespersons. The general secretaries now are Ananth Kumar, Gopinath Munde, Vinay Katiyar, Thawarchand Gehlot, Om Prakash Mathur and new RSS inductee Ramlal, besides Jaitley.

Munde, brother-in-law of slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, is seen to have replaced his relative. Though Munde does not enjoy the stature that Mahajan did, he is now an important Maharashtra leader. Katiyar, who was previously vice-president, has received a more important assignment.
Ramlal is one of four RSS pracharaks brought in by Rajnath Singh, and has replaced Joshi as general secretary in-charge of organisation. Among the vice-presidents, well-known faces like Kalyan Singh, Mukhtar Naqvi, Sahib Singh Verma, Shanta Kumar, Jual Oram and Kailash Meghwal have been retained. Joining them is Yashwant Sinha.

The secretaries include Vijay Goel, N Indrasen Reddy, Balbir Punj, Dharmendra Pradhan, Thirunavukarsar, Kanjibhai Patel, Prabhat Jha and Khiren Rijjo. Rajasthan's Ramdas Aggarwal is treasurer and O P Kohli replaces Ashwini Kumar as office secretary of BJP parliamentary office.
There are 54 regular members of the national executive Sanjay Joshi's name is the last on the list and these include former presidents M Venkaiah Naidu, Bangaru Laxman and MM Joshi. Other notables are Arun Shourie, B C Khanduri, Shatrughan Sinha, Maneka Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kailashpati Mishra.

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