New Delhi | 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.
Nabin, 45, emerged as the sole candidate for the 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 signalling a generational shift in its top organizational leadership and a new era in the party, which was founded in 1980, the same 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 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.
Prime Minister Modi was among the proposers of Nabin's candidature for the party post Several senior BJP leaders including Nadda, and other union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari were among the proposers.
Of the 37 sets of nomination papers, 36 were filed by state units of the party and one set was submitted by the BJP Parliamentary Party.
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 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 said the notification of the schedule of events was announced and the electoral roll was published on January 16, 2026.
Nabin took the political plunge in 2006 after the death of his father Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, who was a BJP MLA.
According to a party leader, Nabin, a Kayasth by caste, may be young but has a lot of experience in governance and working for the people and the organisation.
He impressed the BJP central leadership as the party co-in charge of the November 2023 Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, where BJP pulled off a surprise win by beating chief minister Bhupesh Baghel of the Congress.
In the Lok Sabha elections, he repeated the success formula. The BJP won 10 of the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh.
Born in Ranchi, now in Jharkhand, Nabin is married to Deepmala Shrivastava and the couple has a son and a daughter.
He has been known to win elections with huge margins, starting with the first bypoll he contested in 2006 which he won by nearly 60,000 votes. He won the latest one, earlier this year, by more than 51,000 votes.
Nabin is the latest link in the chain of BJP presidents -- Atal Behari Vajpayee became the first BJP president in 1980 and was succeeded by Lal Krishna Advani in 1986 who held the post for 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.
