Amit Shah fills key vacancies in party

More than six months after several key BJP leaders were inducted into the Union Cabinet, party president Amit Shah has filled the vacancies in his team with his trusted aides.

Shah has brought in leaders whom he worked with closely in the run-up to elections in Maharashtra and Haryana and those who have been active in the party's membership campaign.

Among the three general secretaries is Kailash Vijayavargiya, a cabinet minister in the Madhya Pradesh government, who had played a key role in the Haryana elections. Arun Singh, home minister Rajnath Singh's relative who has been involved in the membership drive, has been elevated from secretary to general secretary in the party. Anil Jain, who was secretary in-charge of party affairs in Haryana, has also been appointed general secretary.

Om Mathur, who enjoys the trust of the RSS and has been given charge of the polls in Maharashtra last year, has been made made vice-president along with Shyam Jaju, who was secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand, and Punjab BJP President Avinash Rai Khanna.

Shah has appointed four secretaries including a former police officer and party leader from Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Khan. Former party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of the party's minority faces, was inducted into the union cabinet last year. The other secretaries are Delhi MP Mahesh Giri, Suresh Pujari from Odisha, Mahendra Singh, an MLC from Uttar Pradesh.