Nitin Nabin set to take over as BJP President on January 20

New Delhi: Nitin Nabin, national working president of BJP, will take charge as the party president on January 20, BJP insiders told ET. While nominations for the post of national president will be filed on January 19, Nabin is likely to be elected unopposed with no other leader filing nomination for the post. Prime Minister Narendra Modi could be one of the proposers for Nabin's nomination for the president post, sources said.

Apart from Modi, Union ministers, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, senior national office-bearers, state unit presidents and members of the party's national executive will be present on the result announcement day. Preparations are underway with several sets of nomination papers having the signature of proposers and seconders, the said.

A detailed outline of the election process will be released by BJP by this weekend. On Tuesday, K Laxman, convenor of the election of BJP national president, held a meeting in New Delhi to discuss the election process. Co-convenors for the election, Sambit Patra and Naresh Bansal, were also present in the meeting.


Nabin will succeed JP Nadda, one of the longest-serving BJP presidents. He will be the youngest BJP national president at 46. The timing of his appointment is crucial as the party has put high stakes on upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - states where BJP has never come to power.

It is currently in power in Assam and Puducherry, which too will go to polls this year. With Nabin's election as the national president, BJP is expected to usher in a new phase of promoting young leadership. After his election as president, a new organisational team will also come in place.

BJP headquarters in the national capital is receiving more than expected guests every day as party leaders and workers from various states are coming to see and greet the new working president. Nabin has worked in BJP Yuva Morcha for a long time and has past association with several visiting leaders.

Though the visitors don't talk about it, many of them want to be considered for a role in the new organisational team, BJP insiders cited above said.