Youngest-Ever BJP Chief: Nitin Nabin to Take Charge of Party

Nitin Nabin is set to be formally elected president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, emerging as the sole candidate for the top post and becoming the youngest person to lead the party. The elevation of the 45-year-old leader is being seen as a significant generational shift in the BJP’s leadership.

On Monday, BJP Returning Officer K Laxman accepted 37 sets of nomination papers in support of Nabin’s candidature—36 from states and Union Territories and one from the parliamentary party, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The nominations were backed by a host of senior leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, Kiren Rijiju and Hardeep Singh Puri, as well as outgoing party president JP Nadda.

Chief ministers and state BJP presidents from several states and Union Territories, including Delhi, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, also endorsed Nabin’s candidature at the party headquarters in New Delhi. With no other nominations filed, Nabin is set to become the BJP’s 12th national president.

A five-term legislator from Bihar, Nabin will lead the party into key assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and the Union Territory of Puducherry. He is also expected to oversee a long-pending organisational overhaul within the party.

Nabin will be the youngest BJP president since Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who assumed the role in 2014 at the age of 49.

Explaining the election process, Laxman said the organisational elections—referred to as Sangathan Parv—began after the selection of presidents in 30 of the party’s 36 state units. Under party rules, the process for electing the national president can commence once elections are completed in at least 50 percent of the states.

“On January 16, 2026, the notification announcing the schedule of events was issued and the electoral roll was published. As per the schedule, the nomination process was completed today between 2 pm and 4 pm, and 37 sets of nomination papers were received in favour of Nitin Nabin for the post of national president,” Laxman said.

Senior BJP leaders said Nabin’s unopposed selection underlines the party’s emphasis on internal democracy and signals a deliberate push to bring younger leaders to the fore. The party’s official statement described the Sangathan Parv as an example of transparent and participatory decision-making, contrasting it with what it termed family-centric politics in other parties.

Notably, Nabin’s name had not featured prominently in political speculation over a successor to JP Nadda until the formal nomination process began.

Earlier in the day, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary welcomed Nabin’s nomination, calling it a moment of pride for the state and the party. Former Union minister Anurag Thakur, who headed the BJP’s youth wing when Nabin served as its general secretary, said the decision sent a strong message to young Indians and urged them to engage in politics under the party’s leadership.