Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) working president JP Nadda took over as the national president of the party from Amit Shah from Monday. Shah had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June to relieve him of the responsibility as the party head as he had a huge number of pressing matters to handle as the Union Home Minister.
Nomination for the post of the national president – as per rule – was filed by Nadda this morning. The voting for the post was scheduled on Tuesday but as Nadda’s nomination was not contested by any other candidate, he was elected unopposed to the post after the process of nomination was complete. The BJP has a tradition of electing its president by consensus rather than by voting. A few days back, president of its West Bengal unit, Dilip Ghosh, was also elected unopposed to the post for second time in a row.
Nadda has been the first choice for the post due to his long experience in student politics and a strong connection with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was an MLA of Himachal Pradesh from 1993-2012 for three terms. He remained a state cabinet minister from 1998-2003 and then again from 2008-2010. In 2012, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. Nadda became the Union Health Minister in 2014 and appointed the working president of BJP in 2019.
His biggest challenges will be the upcoming elections in Delhi and Bihar. Recently, the party faced defeat in state-level elections and by-elections in several states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Rajasthan among others. The setback has been largely seen as the growing outrage across the country over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), which are alleged to be discriminatory by ordinary citizens and opposition political parties.
BJP will host a grand ceremony at the party headquarters later in the day where PM Modi and Amit Shah will speak congratulating Nadda. The ceremony will be attended by top BJP leaders.
Comments are closed.