JP Nadda hands over baton to new BJP chief, ends tenure with strong legacy
NEW DELHI, Jan 19: Forty-five-year-old Nitin Nabin was on Monday elected unopposed as the BJP national president, the youngest ever to occupy the post as it seeks to further expand its influence in uncharted territories.
Nabin, a five-term Bihar MLA, emerged as the sole candidate for the top party post with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders filing nomination papers in his support.
Nabin will be formally declared as BJP president on Tuesday.
He will succeed J P Nadda, who has been at the helm for an extended period since 2020.
“I hereby announce that only one name, that of Shri Nitin Nabin, has been proposed for the post of national president of Bharatiya Janata Party,” K Laxman, the returning officer for the presidential election, said in a statement.
Laxman said 37 sets of nomination papers were filed in favour of Nabin as the BJP national president and all nomination papers were found to be valid.
Besides Prime Minister Modi, several other senior BJP leaders including party chief J P Nadda, and Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari were among the proposers of Nabin’s candidature for the post of BJP national president.Of the 37 sets of nomination papers, 36 were filed by the state units of the party and one set was submitted by the BJP Parliamentary Party.
Outgoing president Nadda, senior ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Nayab Saini, Pramod Sawant, Pema Khandu and Pushkar Singh Dhami were among those present on the occasion.
Laxman said that according to the schedule, the nomination process for the BJP national president was completed between 2 pm and 4 pm on Monday.
“In all, 37 sets of nomination papers were received in favour of Shri Nitin Nabin for the post of national president.On scrutiny, all sets of nomination papers were found to be duly filled out in the required format and were valid.
He said the BJP national president’s election process was initiated after the election of 30 state presidents out of 36 states, well above the required number for completing a minimum of 50 per cent of the states.
He said the notification of the schedule of events was announced and the electoral roll was published on January 16, 2026.
Born in 1980, the year the BJP was founded, Nabin took the political plunge in 2006 after the death of his father Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, who was a BJP MLA.
Nabin, who was the minister for law and justice, urban development and housing in the Bihar government, was appointed working president of the BJP on December 14.
NADDA ENDS TENURE
After Jagat Prakash Nadda took over as the BJP’s 11th national president six years ago, rising steadily through the ranks over a period of three decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed confidence that the party would scale new heights under his leadership.
True to that trust, Nadda delivered a notable legacy, leading the party as it consolidated strongholds and expanded its footprint despite occasional setbacks, before handing over the baton to his successor Nitin Nabin, elected unopposed as the new BJP chief on Monday.
During his tenure, the BJP secured a series of wins in the assembly polls. While the party wrested Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan from the Congress, it ended Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year rule as Odisha chief minister by decimating the BJD in the assembly elections.
Under Nadda’s stewardship, the BJP also returned to power in Delhi in 2025 after more than 26 years by inflicting a crushing defeat on the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the assembly polls.
The BJP stormed to power in Haryana for a third consecutive term and pulled off a stunning performance in Maharashtra, winning a record number of seats and propelling the ruling Mahayuti to a landslide victory.
The NDA’s thumping victory in the Bihar assembly polls towards the end of 2025 consolidated the BJP’s electoral dominance under Nadda’s watch after the BJP’s underwhelming performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
When Nadda assumed the party’s reins on January 20, 2020, the BJP was in power in 15 states, with its chief ministers in just seven. Today, the party holds power in 20 states and Union Territories alongside its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and has its chief ministers in 14 of them.
Nadda’s ability to deliver these results stems from a long journey rooted in his early political activism and years of experience in building, managing and running political structures.
Born to Krishna and Narain Lall Nadda in a Brahmin family on December 2, 1960, Nadda did his schooling from St Xavier’s school in Patna and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Patna University. His father was a professor at Patna University who later served as vice chancellor of Ranchi University.
Nadda’s journey so far has been a striking testament to discipline, conviction and unwavering dedication to public life, according to BJP leaders. He was just 15 when he participated in a relay fast in a movement spearheaded by Jai Prakash Narayan against the then Congress chief minister of Bihar Abdul Gafur.
He became an active member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’ student wing, and participated in the Sampurna Kranti movement led by Jai Prakash Narayan against the imposition of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975.
After his father’s retirement, Nadda relocated with his family to his native place in Himachal Pradesh, where he continued his activism with the ABVP and also pursued LLB from Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla.
In 1991, Nadda became the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and came in touch with the then BJP chief Murli Manohar Joshi.
Nadda won the assembly election from the Bilaspur seat, contesting on the BJP ticket, and became the Leader of the Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1993. He was re-elected from the seat in 1998 and became a cabinet minister in the BJP government for the first time.
In 2010, the BJP appointed Nadda as the party’s national general secretary after Nitin Gadkari took over as the BJP chief. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh in 2012.After Rajnath Singh became the BJP national president in 2013, Nadda was again made the party’s national general secretary to work in his team.
When Amit Shah took the reins of the BJP as its national president in 2014, Nadda was also made a member of the party’s parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body of the organisation.
Nadda enjoys warm relations with Modi, who was for a long time in charge of the BJP’s affairs in Himachal Pradesh.
His steady rise through the organisation continued when he was appointed as the BJP’s national working president in 2019 to share Shah’s responsibilities in the party after the latter was inducted into Modi’s cabinet and given the Home Ministry portfolio. Nadda eventually took over as the BJP chief in 2020.
After the BJP-led NDA returned to power for a third consecutive term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in 2024, Nadda was appointed as Union minister for Health and Family Welfare as well as Chemicals and Fertilisers.
He had served as the Union health minister in the first term of the Modi government from 2014 to 2019. (PTI)
