BJP gets new National President, JP Nadda elected unopposed to succeed Amit Shah

BJP working president Jagat Prakash Nadda has officially taken over as party president on Monday. J P Nadda was elected unopposed as the BJP national president after he emerged as the only leader in the fray following the nomination process in which his candidature was endorsed by top party leaders. Senior BJP leader Radha Mohan Singh, who is the in-charge of the organisational election process, made the announcement at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

He will serve as the party chief from 2019-2022

Outgoing president Amit Shah and other senior leaders congratulated the Himachal Pradesh leader, who had been serving as the party's working president. He will serve for three years at the helm. 

'He took the party to new heights'

Nadda's name was proposed by ex-chiefs and parliamentary board members Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari. "Amit Shah's stint as BJP chief was unparalleled. He took the party to new heights," said Union Minister Rajnath Singh, a past BJP president. PM Modi and Shah had met senior leaders of the BJP, Chief Ministers and former Chief Ministers in a series of meetings at the party office on Sunday, to formally apprise them of Nadda's candidature.

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A veteran leader, he is an old organizational workhorse with strong RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - the BJP's ideological mentor) roots. He was MLA in Himachal Pradesh for three terms before he moved to the central government as a cabinet minister from 1998 to 2003. Amit Shah had written to the Prime Minister in June 2019 requesting that his job of party chief be given to someone else as he had to focus completely on the responsibilities of being Home Minister. Nadda will set his eyes on the upcoming Assembly polls in Delhi and will look to deliver in Delhi. After Delhi, it will be Bihar, where it is in power with ally Nitish Kumar. The party has also launched a mega campaign in Bengal, which will vote in 2021.

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