NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Ending months of suspense, the BJP parliamentary board on Sunday notified the appointment of Bihar Minister and five-term MLA Nitin Nabin as the party’s national working president.
He is expected to be formally elected the president in January 2026. The party will endorse the election at its National Council meeting in April.
The incumbent national president and Union Minister J.P. Nadda is currently on an extension. Mr Nadda had served as working president for a few months under the then national president Amit Shah, who became the Union Home Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Congratulating Mr Nabin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in a post on ‘X’, “Shri Nitin Nabin Ji has distinguished himself as a hard-working karyakarta (worker). He is a young and industrious leader with rich organisational experience and has an impressive record as MLA as well as minister in Bihar for multiple terms. He has diligently worked to fulfil people’s aspirations. He is known for his humble nature and grounded working style. I am confident that his energy and dedication will strengthen our Party in times to come. Congratulations to him on becoming the BJP National Working President.”
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the Home Minister echoed these sentiments and called Mr Nabin to congratulate him.
Mr Nabin has been associated with the BJP for the last two decades, serving for seven years as the president of the Bihar unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the party, and later as its national general secretary. He won his first Assembly election in 2006 from Patna (West) and has since remained undefeated from Bankipore. He currently holds the portfolios of law and justice, urban development and housing, and served as Road Construction Minister between 2021 and 2022.
BJP sources said the choice of Mr Nabin, 45, reflects the party’s desire for a generational shift in its leadership. “Apart from his youth, his deep involvement with the BJP—from its youth wing, the BJYM, to active roles in state-level politics—and his appointment as the co-in-charge of Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh in 2023, when the BJP pulled off a decisive victory against the Congress, weighed in heavily in his favour,” another source said.
“Even a couple of days ago, he was holding meetings with the Chattisgarh State unit on the Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) exercise,” said the source. “He was also the in-charge of the only roadshow attended by Prime Minister Modi during the 2025 Assembly polls in Bihar,” added the source. Belonging to the Kayastha community, Mr Nabin’s father, late Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, was also a BJP MLA and considered one of the veteran leaders instrumental in the party’s rise in the State.
Meanwhile, the delay in the election of the national president was attributed to the differences between the national leadership of the BJP and the RSS. “During the Bihar elections, RSS joint general secretary, in-charge of coordination with the BJP, Arun Kumar, had met Nitin ji separately,” said a source, indicating that the RSS had also signed off on the choice.
BJP’s Patna office broke out in celebration after the announcement was made. With Sunday’s announcement, the BJP is likely to see an overhaul of its national team, with new general secretaries, secretaries and morcha prabharis to be appointed after the formal presidential election.
Reacting to his appointment, Mr Nabin expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister for the opportunity and the guidance provided by Home Minister Amit Shah. “I also want to thank the members of the Parliamentary board…. I will be working to strengthen the party from the booth to the national level. We will be working to strengthen the BJP with an approach of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. I also want to thank all the party workers.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
