Advani and Joshi, who were permanent fixtures on the two panels, have been kicked upstairs and accommodated in a newly created body called 'Margdarshak Mandal'. Neither the lofty nomenclature nor the fact that they have former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee as well as the incumbent Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and his predecessor and home minister Rajnath Singh for company could mask the stark diminution of Advani and Joshi.
Unlike Vajpayee who has been bed-ridden for many years, Advani and Joshi have been active players who had set their sights on bigger objectives before the groundswell for Modi among the cadre swept them aside.
READ ALSO: No tears for Advani and M M Joshi as they are pushed out of parliamentary board
In a way, Shah's decision to leave them out of the parliamentary board and the election committee marks the conclusion of the RSS-backed effort to bench them on the ground that they were all above 75. Advani and Joshi turned down the suggestion not to contest Lok Sabha elections, keeping alive their supporters' hopes that they could get to play a bigger role post-poll, a wish which could not be fulfilled because of the decisive mandate for Modi.
In May, Advani was denied the post of Speaker and Joshi a Cabinet berth because of the same age criterion which they had shrugged off just a few months ago.
Interestingly, Shah's bold strike against Advani has worked to the advantage of Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Ananth Kumar who were sympathetic to the veteran. Kumar, who remained ambivalent towards Modi's credentials until support for him turned into an unstoppable tide, had been speculated to be among those who could have been phased out to meet the requirement to cap the parliamentary board's size at 12.
Chouhan is a new entrant and the other person who has broken into the club is general secretary J P Nadda, who along with Shah was in the running to succeed Rajnath Singh as party president.
Rajnath and two other former party presidents, M Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, have retained their seats on the parliamentary board along with Modi who, interestingly, could make it to the body only after his win in last year's Gujarat elections. Rounding off the panel are Shah, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, finance minister Arun Jaitley, social justice minister Thavarchand Gehlot and general secretary organization Ram Lal.
The central election committee comprises tribal minister Jual Oram, party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain and chief of the women's wing Vijaya Rahatkar besides all members of the parliamentary board.
Interestingly, the press release issued by the party attracted attention also because of the sequence in which names were listed. Thus, Modi figures ahead of Advani among members of Margdarshak Mandal. In case of parliamentary board, Ram Lal is mentioned last, a sequence which left many wondering whether it was an indication that Shah, being a hands on functionary, will be far more involved in organizational matters than his predecessors.
The order stood out also because it was perhaps the first instance where Jaitley's name was mentioned ahead of his contemporary, foreign minister Swaraj.
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