EDITORIAL
BJP’s new national president Nitin Nabin will have to prove his mettle in election year
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the newly elected national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Nitin Nabin would be his “boss” in party-related matters, the reigns of the party – at least in the public eye – were officially handed over to a representative of the new generation. Modi himself described the 45-year-old new head of the BJP as a “millennial” who belonged to a generation that has witnessed a great deal of change in India.
Nabin, a five-time Bihar MLA, has the distinction of being the youngest ever party man to occupy the top BJP post. This is a radical change in the BJP’s strategy that supported senior party members to lead the party. The BJP was formed on April 6, 1980, while Nabin was born few weeks later on May 23, 1980; thus coinciding his birth and that of the party. The BJP, during initial 15 to 20 years following its formation, was dominated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani as its national presidents. Then another senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi took over the post. Subsequently, BJP had four presidents in six years namely Kushabhau Thakre, Bangaru Laxman, Jana Krishnamurthi and Venkaiah Naidu. As the BJP lost power at the Centre to Congress from 2004 to 2014, two more party veterans – Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari – headed the party, during the ‘powerless decade’. BJP returned to power in 2014; Amit Shah became its head and carried the responsibility till 2020.
JP Nadda assumed party leadership after Amit Shah consolidated the party’s national presence, guided its electoral strategies, and maintained organisational discipline. Fortunately Nadda had the advantage of able tactics of Shah. After Nadda was inducted into the Union cabinet following party’s victory at the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it was evident that a replacement would be sought for him. Now as Nabin succeeds Nadda, the BJP is writing an altogether new chapter in its political journey, wherein success is the keyword for the party. Today, the BJP is riding high on its triumph after triumph, from Parliament to state assemblies to self-government bodies, thus tightening its grip on politics in the country.
The first party leader from Bihar to hold the post, Nabin belongs to the Kayastha community. The party seems to have chosen him for his organisational skills, his clean and low-profile image, and strategic efforts by the party leadership to balance caste, age and regional factors, rather than his community being a limitation.
As Modi has maintained, the responsibility on the shoulders of the new BJP national president is not just to manage the party, but also to ensure coordination among all NDA allies. In addition, states like Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal would be going for the assembly polls, this year. Finally, Nabin would also be expected to ensure a cordial relationship between his party and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Nabin however has proved his worth in the past when he was appointed BJP state in-charge for the 2023 Chhattisgarh assembly elections, at a time when the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government was considered firmly entrenched. Most exit and opinion polls had predicted a Congress comeback. Nevertheless, contrary to these projections, the BJP not only defeated Congress but returned to power with a clear majority after five years. This feather in the cap of Nabin could be one of the many reasons, which took him to the highest position in the most powerful political organisation in the country.
