DNA Explainer: As BJP drops Gadkari, Shivraj from Parliamentary Board, know about powers of party's decision-making body

In a major shake-up, the BJP on Wednesday dropped Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its parliamentary board, its apex organisational body, and brought in six new members, including Karnataka leader B S Yediyurappa and Iqbal Singh Lalpura, first Sikh representative.

The party also rejigged its Central Election Committee (CEC) and named Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Bhupender Yadav among its new members. Gadkari and Chouhan ceased to be CEC members after their ouster from the board.

All parliamentary board members, which include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda, automatically become part of the CEC, which has some additional members as well. The other new board members are K Laxman, Sudha Yadav and Satyanarayan Jatiya, three old party faithfuls but considered political lightweights.

The BJP’s Parliamentary Board, the highest body of the party, and the Centre Election Commission (CEC), the second highest body, had been functioning without full strength for the last eight years. 

Amit Shah had formed the Parliamentary Board in 2014 after taking over as the party’s national president. It included Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and BL Santosh. 

Apart from this, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Sushma Swaraj were also members of the body. The three seats fell vacant following their demise. Two more seats fell vacant after Venkaiah Naidu became the Vice President and Thaawarchand Gehlot the Governor.

The BJP Parliamentary Board, which is constituted by the National Executive, is responsible for the conduct and coordination of the party’s parliamentary activities. 

In addition to the party president, it consists of ten members. One of these members is the leader of the party in the parliament, while the national president is the head of the parliamentary board.

Along with the Parliamentary Board, the Central Election Committee of the BJP has also been constituted. It consists of 15 members. Like the Central Parliamentary Committee, the chairman of the election committee will also be JP Nadda. 

Other than Nadda, PM Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, B S Yediyurappa, Sarbananda Sonowal, K Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Sudha Yadav, Satyanarayan Jatiya, Bhupender Yadav, Devendra Fadnavis, Om Mathur, B L Santosh and Vanathi Srinivasan are also members of the CEC. 

There was speculation that Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath may make an entry. Union minister Piyush Goyal, who is also the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav were also seen as contenders. Yadav, though, is in the CEC now.

Both Yediyurappa and Jatiya are over 75 years of age, an informal age bar within the party for holding important posts as it has gone all out to reduce the average age of its organisational leaders.