The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday formally initiated the process for the election of its new national president, with senior leaders filing nomination papers in support of the party’s working president, Nitin Nabin.
BJP President J P Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh submitted one set of Nabin’s nomination papers to the party’s Returning Officer K Laxman, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, and senior leaders Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, and Kiren Rijiju.
Later in the day, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, along with other state leaders, filed another set of nomination papers backing Nabin, who was appointed working president last month.
Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), Nayab Singh Saini (Haryana), and Pramod Sawant (Goa) were also present during the filing. Leaders from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Jharkhand, and several other states extended their support by submitting nomination papers.
The 45-year-old Nitin Nabin is widely expected to be elected unopposed as the BJP’s 12th national president, with top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, backing his candidature.
The BJP national president is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the party’s national council and state councils, with the process overseen by the national returning officer.
As per the BJP constitution, a candidate must be proposed jointly by at least 20 members of a state’s electoral college, and such proposals must come from a minimum of five states where elections to the national council have been completed. The candidate must also have completed four terms as an active member and possess at least 15 years of party membership.
