BJP president Nitin Nabin's new team: Malviya out, Irani and Ram Madhav in

The BJP has removed Amit Malviya as the head of its IT cell and replaced him with Deepak Mhaskey as part of the new team announced by party president Nitin Nabin.

Mhaskey's career has worked in various fields including academia, agriculture and electoral data analysis. He started his career as a Chemistry professor. He also served in a senior role in the Chhattisgarh government.

Malviya, who has faced criticism and allegations over his social media posts, including accusations of sharing manipulated or fake video clips, also reportedly came under fire from several quarters for the IT cell's 'failure' to counter the Cockroach Janta Party's online campaign.

The reshuffle, however, leaves the BJP’s media department unchanged. Anil Baluni will continue as the party’s media in-charge and be assisted by joint coordinators Ashish Usha Agarwal, Pradeep Bhandari and Siddharth Yadav.

The new appointments also mark the return of former Union minister Smriti Irani to the BJP’s senior organisational leadership. Irani has been appointed a national general-secretary.

Former national general-secretary Ram Madhav has also returned to the party’s central organisational team, being named one of the BJP’s 13 national vice-presidents. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and Rekha Verma are among the other national vice-presidents.

Six of the 13 national vice-presidents are women, signalling an emphasis on greater representation of women in the party’s key organisational positions. The new team also includes four women secretaries and a woman general-secretary. Two members of the team are from the Muslim community.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal has been appointed the BJP’s national treasurer.

The appointments also reflect an attempt to strengthen the BJP’s organisational presence in southern and eastern India, with leaders from Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha and the Northeast being given prominent positions as national secretaries and vice-presidents.

Sandeep Pathak, who recently quit the Aam Aadmi Party, has been appointed a national secretary, while MP Sambit Patra has been given charge as the party’s coordinator for the Northeast region.