# Smriti Irani, Ram Madhav return in BJP’s new 65-member team 2026-08-17T13:21:27+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The BJP has announced its new 65-member national team under president Nitin Nabin, with former Union minister Smriti Irani returning as national general secretary and Ram Madhav as national vice-president. The reshuffle marks Irani's comeback to a core organisational role after losing the 2024 Lok Sabha election and leaving the Union Cabinet. Amit Malviya, who led the party's digital campaign for years, has been left out of the team. Chhattisgarh's Deepak Mhaskey replaces Malviya as the party's social media convener. His team will include co-conveners Preeti Gandhi, Shivanand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that the new team combines organisational experience, energy and grassroots connect, expressing confidence that it would strengthen the party and focus on public service. The changes come as the BJP prepares for upcoming elections. ## Coverage - ndtv.com - news.abplive.com This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-17T14:46:56+00:00. Tags: Amit Shah, BJP, Narendra Modi, Smriti Irani Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/smriti-irani-returns-as-bjp-general-secretary-in-party-overhaul/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/smriti-irani-returns-as-bjp-general-secretary-in-party-overhaul/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/