NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 11: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today emerged stronger in the party in his face-off with the RSS by not only ensuring K N Govindacharya's exit but also managing to have 16 of his loyalists in the 19-member party team of Bangaru Laxman announced for the next three years. The RSS was fobbed off with three candidates.Govindacharya was the most vociferous proponent of the RSS agenda, including swadeshi. The RSS nominees in Bangaru's team are vice-presidents Kailashpati Mishra, Pyare Lal Khandelwal and secretary Padnabhacharya. Though Madan Lal Khurana, who has been reinstated as vice-president, claimed he was an RSS nominee, he has of late endeared himself to Vajpayee by ``realising his mistakes''.Bangaru Laxman himself being a Vajpayee nominee seems to have taken good care of loyalists of his predecessors Kushabhau Thakre and the Prime Minister as well at a time when Vajpayee needs to crush all opposition from the Sangh Parivar and the allies.Though general secretary Narendra Modi is an RSS pracharak, he too seems to have moved closer to Vajpayee as he followed the Prime Minister to Manali during his vacation. Modi is now camping in New York to be with Vajpayee, BJP sources said.Bangaru sprang a major surprise by appointing Lal Bahadur Shastri's son, Sunil, as general secretary apparently with an eye on the U.P. Assembly elections due next year. Shastri, who shifted from the Congress seven years ago, seems to be a Vajpayee nominee - the Prime Minister has given a clear signal that the BJP's doors are now more open than ever before for people coming from other parties.The three vice-presidents who were dropped - Bhawna Chikhalia, Ram Das Agarwal and JP Mathur - were supporters of Home Minister L K Advani, just like Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti and Govindacharya who all seem to have earned Vajpayee's ire.Interestingly, Bangaru has filled over one third of the executive with Union Ministers - 17 out of 50 - tilting the balance further in Vajpayee's favour. Six out of 19 special invitees to the national executive are also Union Ministers, all Vajpayee loyalists.Khurana had been sacked as vice-president after he made insinuating remarks against Vajpayee in April this year. Today, he was reinstated on the same post after making up with the Prime Minister.``I committed a number of mistakes,'' he said, claiming he was nominated to the team by RSS leaders. ``I had a series of meetings with top RSS leaders a month ago. I also met Vajpayee and Advani and had been assured of a berth in the team of office-bearers,'' he told The Indian Express.Khurana's rival in Delhi politics, Sahib Singh Varma, has, however, been given the more important post of general secretary; Kushabhau Thakre's nominee, Maya Singh, has also got that post.Another surprise was retention of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as secretary. After Bangaru's emphasis on Muslims' participation in BJP affairs, he was tipped to be promoted as general secretary.M Venkaiah Naidu has been retained as general secretary and BJP leaders are likely to entrust him with the responsibility of being the party spokesman as well, scotching rumours of Naidu's inclusion in the Union Cabinet.But Bangaru is likely to himself coordinate between the Government and the party. He has also kept two posts of secretaries vacant ``for want of suitable candidates''.By retaining Karia Munda, an influential Scheduled Tribe leader from Jharkhand, as vice-president, Bangaru has indicated that Munda is not in the race for the top job in the new state. The BJP, it now seems, will be backing the younger Babu Lal Marandi.Former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Gopinath Munde is the new addition to the team, much to the respite of Shiv Sena leaders, as vice-president while Jana Krishnamurthy and Kailashpati Mishra have been retained in the same post.
