Himanta, Bahuguna inducted into BJP national executive

Himanta Biswa Sarma, who defected from Congress to BJP and played a key role in its big Assam win, and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, a new entrant to the saffron party, were on Saturday inducted into its national executive, a day before it meets for a two-day session in Allahabad on Sunday.

BJP brought several new faces to its key body, the highlight being some former Congress leaders, including former Odisha Chief Minister and tribal leader Giridhar Gamang and former union minister K P Singh Deo, also from that state.

The party also inducted into the National Executive several of its former state unit chiefs, including Laxmikant Bajpai of Uttar Pradesh, Prahlad Joshi of Karnataka, V Muraleedharan of Kerala, Kamal Sharma of Punjab and Chaoba Singh of Manipur. All these four leaders were heading the party in their states until recently.