Five-time Bihar MLA Nitin Nabin was elected unopposed as BJP national president, succeeding J P Nadda and marking a generational shift in party leadership.
Backed by PM Narendra Modi and senior leaders, Nabin becomes the youngest BJP chief since the party’s founding in 1980.
His leadership will be tested in upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam as the BJP seeks expansion.
Five-time Bihar MLA Nitin Nabin was on Monday elected unopposed as the BJP national president, the youngest ever to occupy the top party post at a time when the saffron party seeks to further expand its footprint with key state elections around the corner.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent BJP figures filed candidacy papers in support of Nabin, 45, who became the only contender for the position.
On Tuesday, Nabin will be formally proclaimed the president of the BJP, marking a generational change in the party's senior organisational leadership and a new chapter in its history. The party was founded in 1980, the year he was born.
The low-profile and unassuming Nabin, who resigned as the minister for law and justice, urban development and housing in the Bihar government after he was appointed working president of the BJP on December 14, will succeed J P Nadda. Nadda, who is the Union Health Minister, has been at the helm of the party's affairs 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.
According to Laxman, 37 sets of nomination papers were submitted in support of Nabin as the national president of the BJP, and all of them were deemed legitimate.
One of the people who suggested Nabin run for the party position was Prime Minister Modi. The proposers included union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Nitin Gadkari, as well as a number of prominent BJP figures, including Nadda.
The party's state units submitted 36 of the 37 sets of nomination papers, while the BJP Parliamentary Party submitted one.
In a post on X, Laxman said, "Under the BJP's Sangathan Parv, the election process for the post of national president was conducted successfully in my capacity as national returning officer." This "transparent and democratic process" once again reflects the party's strong organisational values and its deep commitment to internal democracy, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP further said.
Laxman said the nomination process was completed in a "fully constitutional and transparent manner".
"With nationwide consensus, Nitin Nabin was the sole nominee. Heartiest congratulations and best wishes," he said in another post on X.
Nadda, senior ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Nayab Saini, Pramod Sawant, Pema Khandu, Pushkar Singh Dhami were among those present on the occasion.
As the BJP seeks to further expand its influence in uncharted territories, the upcoming Assembly elections in the opposition-ruled states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as well as BJP-ruled Assam, will come as a major test for Nabin, who was preferred to more seasoned leaders.
The elections will be an opportunity for Nabin, who rose through the ranks in the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, to prove his mettle as organisational head of the BJP pyramid.
Laxman said that according to the schedule, the nomination process 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 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 claimed that on January 16, 2026, the electoral roll was released and the program of events was announced.
After his father, BJP MLA Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, passed away in 2006, Nabin decided to enter politics.
A party leader claims that although Nabin, a Kayasth by caste, is young, he has a wealth of experience working for the people and the organisation and in government.
As the party co-in charge of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections in November 2023, where the BJP unexpectedly defeated Congress chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, he impressed the BJP national leadership.
In the Lok Sabha elections, he repeated the success formula. Ten of the eleven seats in Chhattisgarh were won by the BJP.
Nabin, who was born in Ranchi and currently resides in Jharkhand, is married to Deepmala Shrivastava. The pair has a son and a daughter.
Since his first bypoll in 2006, which he won by around 60,000 votes, he has been known to win elections by enormous majorities. Earlier this year, he won the most recent one by a margin of almost 51,000 votes.
Nabin is the most recent president of the BJP. Atal Behari Vajpayee was the party's first president in 1980, and Lal Krishna Advani took over in 1986 and served three terms.
Others who have held the position include Murli Manohar Joshi, Kushabhau Thakre, Bangaru Laxman, Jana Krishnamurthi, Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh (twice), Nitin Gadkari and Amit Shah
