The State unit of the BJP has secured a moderate presence in the re-jigged executive committee which was announced by BJP president J.P. Nadda on Thursday.
Former Governor of Mizoram Kummanam Rajasekharan and technocrat E. Sreedharan have been inducted as regular member and as special invitee respectively.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan has been retained in the 80-member committee while his bête noire P.K. Krishnadas who is leading one of the factions in the State unit, is one of the 50 special invitees.
Incidentally, Sobha Surendran, who had fallen out with the State leadership for some time, was dropped from the national executive. Also former Union Minster K.J. Alphons was excluded from the list.
Considering his age, former legislator and senior leader O. Rajagopal has also been removed from the panel. The executive is a key deliberative body of the party.
In the national revamp of the leadership last year, A.P Abdulla Kutty was posted one of the national vice presidents of the party. Keralite Arvind Menon, who is based in Delhi, is already a national secretary. Tom Vadakkan has been retained as one of the national spokespersons.
There are 179 permanent invitees, including State presidents and general secretaries (organisation). Thus State president K. Surendran, State general secretary (organisation) M. Ganeshan and joint general secretary (organisation) K. Subhash have found their place as ex-officio members.