JD announces 77-member national executive committee

The Janata Dal on Friday announced a 77-member national executive committee, besides 16 permanent invitees, and pledged to restore inner democracy in the party.

JD president Sharad Yadav said the first meeting of the newly-constituted committee would be held in the first week of September. The venue is yet to be decided.

While the party's state presidents will be ex-officio members of the national executive, as many as 29 members have been named as special invitees. Yadav was authorised by the party national convention to nominate the executive committee members in consultation with Prime Minister I K Gujral and other senior leaders of the party. Among those present were two former prime ministers -- Vishwanath Pratap Singh and H D Deve Gowda.

Yadav, who is also a member of the executive committee by virtue of being the party chief, said that four national executive committee members might be dropped shortly to limit the number of members in the panel to 74 as provided for in the JD's constitution. There are only six women members in the committee.

UNI