BJP national president JP Nadda on Monday announced the new 20-member core committee of the party’s West Bengal unit with state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari heading the panel.

Party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh has also been included in the new committee.

In a surprising move, national executive committee member Mithun Chakraborty has been included in the core committee. Earlier, the committee had 12 members which were selected by the state BJP leadership. But this time, the central leadership took charge of forming the new committee and increased the number of its members. Similarly, Union Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways are some of the new entrants. Former Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly has been dropped from the committee.

The other members of the core committee include former state unit president Rahul Sinha, Union ministers Nisith Pramanik and John Barla, national executive committee members Swapan Dasgupta and Anirban Ganguly, former Union minister Debashree Choudhary, party’s chief whip in state Assembly Manoj Tigga, state BJP general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakravorty, party MPs Locket Chaterjee and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato, MLAs Dipak Barman, and Agnimitra Paul.

The committee also includes several special invitee members such Mangal Pandey, Sunil Bansal, Amit Malviya and Asha Lakra who are observers and in-charge of party’s affairs in West Bengal.

Sources said that the central leaders were not happy with the performance of the state unit in various areas. Central leaders have directed the state unit to overcome the organisational weaknesses and prepare for the next year’s state panchayat elections.

Focus has been laid on booth empowerment and outreach programmes.

The state leadership later in the day appointed Agnimitra Paul and Locket Chatterjee as in-charges of the party’s yuva and mahila morchas.