The Hindu : National : Munde, Oram may be new BJP general secretaries

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Wednesday, Jan 17, 2007
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National

Munde, Oram may be new BJP general secretaries

Neena Vyas

Jaitley, Sanjay Joshi, Ananth Kumar set to retain posts

Jual Oram

NEW DELHI: Gopinath Munde and Jual Oram are frontrunners for key positions as Bharatiya Janata Party general secretaries.

It is authoritatively learnt that party president Rajnath Singh is actively considering their names although final consultations have yet to be completed.

Mr. Munde is leader of the BJP's legislature party in Maharashtra and is brother-in-law of BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.

Mr. Oram is a Member of Parliament from Sundergarh in Orissa and belongs to a scheduled tribe.

The party's national council in Lucknow affirmed Mr. Singh's three-year tenure as party president in December 2006 after his election.

Gopinath Munde

Under the party constitution, a president can nominate the central team of office-bearers and new national executive committee members.

There are nine positions of general secretaries of which two positions have been vacant — Mahajan died and Mr. Singh, who held the position of general secretary was elevated as party president in January 2006, after L.K. Advani, then president, resigned mid-term.

It is certain that of the current general secretaries Mr. Singh will retain Arun Jaitley, Sanjay Joshi and Ananth Kumar.

He may also prefer not to rock the boat, party sources said. That would mean that some from among the other general secretaries — Thawar Chand Gehlot, Vinay Katiyar and Om Prakash Mathur — also have a chance of being retained.

Usually, the team of general secretaries should have at least one woman.

At one point that position was to go to Uma Bharati but political events led to her expulsion.

After the December session, some senior party members said that Mr. Singh was likely to reconstitute the team of central office-bearers after Makar Shankranti. That was over the last weekend. However, it is not very clear when Mr. Singh will reshuffle the party pack — very soon or after the ongoing process of Assembly elections is over.

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