Former Union minister Smriti Irani was on Monday appointed as one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s eight national general secretaries.

Ram Madhav, a leader of the BJP’s parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was named as one of its 13 vice presidents.

Amit Malviya was removed as the head of the BJP’s social media department, and has been replaced by Deepak Mhaskey. Anil Baluni was retained as the party’s media convenor.

Union minister Piyush Goyal will replace Rajesh Agarwal as the party treasurer.

The inductions into the senior leadership are the first major changes in the Hindutva party’s national organisation since Nitin Nabin became the BJP chief in January.

Irani had lost her Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress in the 2024 general elections. She was dropped from the Union Cabinet when the third Narendra Modi government came to power in June 2024.

Besides Madhav, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat and BJP’s Andhra Pradesh chief Daggubati Purandeswari were also made national vice presidents.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and BJP leader Baijayant Panda will continue as the national vice presidents of the party.

BL Santosh was retained as the national secretary (organisation). While Former Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde and party leader Sunil Bansal will continue as national general secretaries, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb was also appointed to the post.

Vadodara MP Hemang Joshi will replace MP Tejasvi Surya as the BJP’s youth wing chief.

Written by Anamika Pathak and Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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