No Other Candidate in Fray, Nitin Nabin to Become BJP’s New President

New Delhi: Over a month after he was named as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s working president, Bihar MLA Nitin Nabin is all set to become the saffron party’s new president in an election where he is going to be elected unopposed, with no other candidate in the fray. A political dynast, Nabin is the son of former Bihar legislator Nabin Kishore Sinha, a four-time member of the Bihar legislative assembly from Patna West.

On Monday (January 19), the BJP’s top leadership including Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and outgoing president J.P. Nadda submitted 45-year-old Nabin’s nomination papers at the party headquarters in New Delhi to K. Laxman, the returning officer for the election. Other Union ministers including environment minister Bhupinder Yadav, and parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju were also present. During the course of the nomination process on Monday, the party sought to project a show of unity. Top leaders including chief ministers Adityanath, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Nayab Singh Saini and Pramod Sawant, along with other state leaders also presented letters of support.

नई दिल्ली स्थित भाजपा मुख्यालय में भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @JPNadda, केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री श्री @AmitShah, रक्षा मंत्री श्री @rajnathsingh, केंद्रीय सड़क परिवहन एवं राजमार्ग मंत्री श्री @nitin_gadkari एवं भारतीय जनता पार्टी संसदीय दल के नेताओं ने आज राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष पद हेतु… pic.twitter.com/zSBz4kpa9l

— BJP (@BJP4India) January 19, 2026

In a statement on Monday evening, Laxman said 37 sets of nomination papers were received in favour of Nabin, and that Nabin’s was the only name that had been proposed for the post of the national president.

“Now after the period of withdrawal, in my capacity as National Returning Officer, Sangathan Parv, the Bharatiya Janata Party, I hereby announce that one name, that of Shri Nitin Nabin, has been proposed for the post of National President of Bharatiya Janata Party,” Laxman’s statement said.

While only a single name had been proposed for the post of the president, the party in a post on X on Monday said that the election of the party president is a “celebration of democracy”.

"For the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sangathan Parv is not merely a process, but a celebration of democracy. While other parties remain confined to family-centric politics, the BJP is the only party that selects its leadership in a transparent, participatory, and democratic manner, from the booth level to the national level," the party said.

"From the establishment of the Jana Sangh to the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the tradition of elected national presidents up to now, this is a living testament to the truth that in the BJP, major positions and significant responsibilities are determined not by family ties, but on the basis of hard work, dedication, public service, and service to the nation."

BJP leaders' statements too made it clear that Nabin's election as party president was fait accompli, irrespective of the election process.

"This is a matter of great joy for us, as the youngest-ever national president of the BJP will be Nitin Nabin. The entire party, the world’s largest political party, will stand firmly behind him," said BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy to reporters. 

Also read: Nitin Nabin: Yet Another Low-Profile BJP President Whose Term Will Cement Modi-Shah's Reign

On Sunday, BJP’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Sanjay Jaiswal said that for the first time a leader from Bihar became the national working president and will also become the party president.

“Our acting national president, Shri Nitin Nabin, has for the first time from Bihar got the opportunity to become the national working president. Tomorrow, he will file his nomination and the day after tomorrow he will become the president,” he said.

“A young leader of 45 years has been chosen through a collective decision by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Home Minister and others. This is a very good decision. After the nomination tomorrow and the results the day after, a new message will go across the country that the leadership of the world’s largest party has been entrusted to a 45-year-old,” Jaiswal added.

Nabin will follow his predecessor, Nadda, who too was elected unopposed on January 20, 2020. Earlier this week, Rajya Sabha MP Aditya Sahu was elected unopposed with no other candidates filing nominations to head the BJP in Jharkhand. Similarly, Jagdish Vishvakarma was elected unopposed as the Gujarat BJP chief in October, while in July Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya was also elected unopposed to head the West Bengal unit.

The Wire has earlier reported that while outgoing president Nadda’s tenure had ended over 18 months ago, the BJP was struggling to find his replacement because internal factions in various states delayed unit-level elections inordinately, even when leaderships in state units were elected to fulfil the requirements of the electoral college that chooses the party president, differences between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Narendra Modi-led BJP over the next batch of national office bearers further delayed the decision.  

Nabin, is a five-term MLA, and won Bihar’s Bankipur seat in the assembly elections in November which saw the BJP emerging as the single largest party for the first time in the state. He belongs to the state’s Kayastha community, an ‘upper’ caste group in Bihar which is politically non-dominant as it is only 0.6% of the state’s population. 

In 2023, Nabin was made the BJP’s co-incharge for Chhattisgarh. Later that year, the BJP displaced the Congress’ Bhupesh Baghel-led government in the assembly elections to form the government in the state. The following year he was made the BJP’s in-charge for Chhattisgarh for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP winning 10 out of the 11 parliamentary seats in the state. 

His election comes in a crucial year, with state assembly elections due in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is yet to head a government.

Despite the organisational responsibilities given to Nabin in the last two-odd years, and his elevation being pipped as a generational shift in the party, questions remain whether Nabin will emerge as the power centre in the BJP despite becoming the president, with decisions in both the party and the government concentrated in Modi and Shah’s hands.

Shah himself was the last powerful BJP president, a post which has seen the likes of top leaders including Singh, Gadkari, L.K. Advani and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Like the recent spate of relatively unknown leaders being appointed as chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh (Mohan Yadav), Chhattisgarh (Vishnu Deo Sai), Odisha (Mohan Majhi), Nabin’s elevation to the post of working president last month also came as a surprise to observers. However, The Wire has reported that his elevation follows the  Modi-Shah template of consolidating power in their hands, rendering other leaders voiceless, and not nurturing second-rung leadership.

Nabin will formally be announced as the party’s new president on Tuesday (January 20).

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