Nitin Nabin elected unopposed as BJP national president

New Delhi: Nitin Nabin will be the next president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, taking over the reins from outgoing president J P Nadda. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce at the party headquarters. Nabin was elected the party president after he was the only nominee in the presidential elections.

Presiding officer K Laxman said that all nomination papers were valid. “On scrutiny, all sets of Nomination Papers were found to be duly-filled up in the required format and were valid. After the period of withdrawal, in my capacity as National Returning Officer, I hereby announce that only one name, that of Nitin Nabin, has been proposed for the post of National President of Bharatiya Janata Party,” Laxman said in a statement.

“The process is now complete; we are left with just the declaration and the announcement, which will be done in the presence of the prime minister on Tuesday,” Laxman told the media.

Nabin, at 45, is the youngest president in the party’s history, and his appointment signals a generational shift in the party. He was named the working president of the party in December, indicating his elevation to the top post.

Among those who proposed or seconded Nabin’s name were union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, and Bhupendra Yadav. Several chief ministers, including UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal, Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai, Bihar DCM Samrat Choudhary, are among those who submitted letters of support for Nabin’s candidature.

The election process was only a day-long affair. On Friday, the schedule of events was announced, and the electoral roll was published. Over 5700 voters were part of the roll. As per the schedule, on Monday, the nomination process was completed between 2 pm and 4 pm.

In his statement, Laxman said that the process of presidential election was initiated after the election of 30 state presidents out of 36 States, which he said is “well above the required number”. The party’s constitution states that a minimum of 50% of the states need to have organisational polls for the presidential elections to take place. Among those where organisational polls did not take place, Karnataka is the only major state in addition to smaller states like Punjab, Tripura, Manipur, and Delhi.