Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Nitin Nabin on Monday announced the names of the new set of National office-bearers. The revamped panel consists of a mixture of seasoned cadres and young faces as the BJP gears up for the crucial state assembly elections.

The 13 national vice-presidents include the former Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, RSS leader Ram Madhav, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat. The post of vice-president also includes the former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

The list of eight national general secretaries has seen the return of Smriti Irani to the party’s national leadership after quitting as Union minister. Other familiar faces in the list are Satish Poonia, the BJP’s Punjab observer, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Bhatia.Vinod Tawde, Sunil Bansal, and Tarun Chugh retained their positions of general secretary while the latter was transferred to the post of chief of the party’s central office. B.L. Santhosh continues to hold the post of National General Secretary (Organization).

One of the biggest names to join the fray this year as the treasurer of the BJP is Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. It will be interesting to see if he will be able to balance his portfolio as commerce minister with that of the treasurer of the ruling party under the one person-one post norm.

Lok Sabha MP Anil Baluni continues to hold the charge as media convener while Arun Singh, Dushyant Gautam, and Radha Mohan Das Agarwal have been de-listed as general secretaries.

The political experts observed  that the reshuffle strongly focuses on the state assembly elections due in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and other states. A look at the list indicates that it has been dominated by the leaders from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.