Top leadership backs 45-year-old working president; election likely to be uncontested
BuzzBytes News Desk
New Delhi, Jan 18: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday formally initiated the process for the election of its new national president, with senior party leaders submitting nomination papers of Nitin Nabin, the party’s 45-year-old working president, for the top organisational post.
BJP President J P Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh handed over a set of Nabin’s nomination papers to K Laxman, the party’s national returning officer, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, and senior leaders Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav and Kiren Rijiju.
Later, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, along with other state leaders, submitted another set of nomination papers in support of Nabin, who was appointed as the BJP’s working president last month. Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Nayab Singh Saini and Pramod Sawant were also present on the occasion.
Leaders from several states, including Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Jharkhand, besides other regions, extended their support by filing nomination papers backing Nabin’s candidature.
With the backing of the party’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Nabin is expected to be elected unopposed as the BJP’s 12th national president.
The BJP national president is elected by an electoral college comprising representatives from the party’s national and state councils, with the entire process overseen by the national returning officer. As per the party’s constitution, any 20 members of a state’s electoral college can jointly propose a candidate who has completed four terms as an active member and holds at least 15 years of party membership. Such a proposal must come from not less than five states where elections to the national council have been completed.
