BackFormer Union minister Nadda unanimously elected BJP chief
Nadda takes the reins at a time when the party is facing pressure over the controversial citizenship Act, NRCThe immediate electoral challenge for Nadda will be Bihar in Nov and Bengal in May 2021
PremiumNEW DELHI : Jagat Prakash Nadda, working president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was elected unopposed as the party’s president on Monday. With this, the five-and-a-half-year tenure of home minister Amit Shah at the top of India’s largest party has come to an end.
Nadda, 59, was a Union minister during the first term of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. He was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be working president after the BJP won a second term in May 2019, and Shah moved to the home ministry. According to the BJP’s internal rules, a person cannot hold more than one post in the party or in the government.
Nadda takes the reins of the party at a time the BJP is facing immense pressure over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“BJP is going to face more challenges in the coming days. We are facing opposition because people of the country support us and we have to work towards meeting the expectations and aspirations of the people. The party has to grow horizontally and the workers of BJP have to grow vertically," Modi said at the BJP headquarters.
The immediate electoral challenge for Nadda will be Bihar in November this year and West Bengal in May 2021. During the three-year tenure of Nadda, the party will face elections in Uttar Pradesh, six states of the North-East, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
“There are many areas where BJP has yet to get electoral victory and many areas where BJP does not have booth workers. We must move forward in this direction under the leadership of J.P. Nadda," Shah said.
As a member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the BJP’s students wing, Nadda was detained for 45 days for protesting against the Emergency in 1975, and has risen through the party’s ranks. He formally entered public life in 1993, becoming a legislator in home state Himachal Pradesh.
Nadda was a member of the Himachal Pradesh assembly in 1993, 1998 and 2007 and has served as minister for health, parliamentary affairs, environment, and science and technology in the state government.
His big break in national politics came in May 2010 when the then BJP president Nitin Gadkari made him a general secretary. Since then, Nadda has played an important role for the BJP at the national level and has not returned to the state legislative assembly. In April 2012, Nadda became a member of the Rajya Sabha and handled Uttar Pradesh during the 2019 general elections. He also served as health minister from 2014 to 2019.
As a child, Nadda had represented Bihar state in the All India Junior Swimming Championship held at Delhi. He married Dr. Mallika Nadda in December 1991 and they have two sons. Nadda’s mother-in-law is former Lok Sabha member of Parliament Jayshree Banerjee, a senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking at the function at the BJP headquarters, Modi said the biggest challenge for Nadda will come from Opposition parties who he said are deliberately spreading lies and a misinformation campaign against the BJP. The comment is interesting because Opposition parties have been protesting against the implementation of CAA.
“Political parties that have been rejected by the people are spreading lies and misinformation against the government. It is the confidence of the people in BJP and its leadership that has helped the party," Modi said.
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