When low-profile Bihar minister Nitin Nabin’s name sprang out of nowhere as the BJP’s national working president, his eventual choice as outgoing president J P Nadda’s successor was a given. After the formality of organisational elections, Nabin, 45, was handed the baton, marking a generational shift in the BJP whose graying leadership realises the importance of engaging with the youth. His Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad roots, a stint as the BJP Yuva Morcha’s national general secretary and five consecutive terms as MLA taught him leadership, team building and mass mobilisation. Not known to be a loose talker, Nabin is also not part of any lobby. Even in Bihar, he was more an exemplary party karyakarta (worker) who delivered as instructed rather than a neta (leader) in the broader sense.
Nabin’s appointment is part of the early planning for 2029, when the BJP would seek a fresh mandate. By then, tectonic forces like changed Centre-state relations following the delimitation of constituencies after the delayed Census and quota for women in parliament would have kicked in. Only parties with nimble feet can hope to safely negotiate the multiple pulls such forces would create. Combating anti-incumbency of 15 years while managing mercurial allies would not be easy. Steering the party ship would require a patient listener at the helm, who is a quick learner and a doer—qualities the headhunters saw in Nabin. That the party took three years to find a replacement for Nadda, whose tenure ended in 2023, indicated the protracted efforts to thrash out a consensus with the RSS.
With a clutch of assembly elections on the horizon, Nabin hit the ground running, flagging controversies around Sanatana Dharma and Ram Setu in Tamil Nadu. Known for rejuvenating a moribund party unit in Chhattisgarh to pull off a stunning victory in December 2023, his skills will be tested in the tough states of West Bengal, TN and Kerala, as also combating anti-incumbency in Puducherry. The party has a massive electoral machine that is forever ready. The task before Nabin is to learn on the go, reduce the average leadership age, open new vistas, draw more youth and make the party future-ready. The Bihar BJP does not have a chief ministerial candidate to compete with Nitish Kumar. If Nabin does well, he could well aspire for that position in time.