New Delhi, Aug 16 (NDTV): Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has been named one of the 11 vice-presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the new team announced for BJP chief Amit Shah today.
Apart from Yeddyurappa, Bandaru Dattatrey and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are among other vice-presidents named by Amit Shah. His new team will also have eight general secretaries including party's Bihar in-charge Rajiv Pratap Rudy and RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav.
According to BJP, young and experienced leaders have been given a place in Amit Shah's team. The party says that half of the team members are below the age of 50, while nearly 90 per cent haven't touched 60.
"This is a new, young team. Modiji's mission will be implemented by this new Yuva BJP team under Amit Shah's leadership," BJP general secretary JP Nadda said.
In a surprising move, BJP MP from Sultanpur, Varun Gandhi, has been dropped as a general secretary by the party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have held a series of meetings to decide a new team for Amit Shah who became BJP chief last month.
The RSS, which has in recent years sought to play a more involved role in the BJP's affairs, had backed the appointment as BJP chief of Amit Shah - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's closest aide and the man he reportedly wanted in that post - to ensure that the party and the government it leads at the Centre have the best coordination. The party may, for the first time, appoint a general secretary who would be in charge of coordination.
The RSS reportedly does not want to repeat what it sees as mistakes made during the Vajpayee regime a decade ago; it believes that the gap between the organisation, the political party and the government had widened then. It also wants to ensure that the BJP being in power does not mean a dilution of the Sangh's core ideology.