Bihar Minister Nitin Nabin Takes Charge As BJP National Working President In Delhi |
Under the leadership of Modi, the BJP has a habit of shocking people and the nation. The BJP’s latest pick for the working president, Nitin Nabin, who presumably will take over as the party president, is the latest in the line.
As his name hit the headlines, Delhi journalists started calling each other, with only one question: Who is this man? Many of them had no clue whatsoever. Don’t be fooled if these journalists start saying now that they knew him intimately.
Even the writer of this column had no idea who he was. I contacted many fellow reporters and journalists and researched him online. In fact, all the people I called were in shock. A few of them, in fact, cursed, as Delhi journalists have very big egos and feel extremely embarrassed and hurt when something happens in the corridors of power about which they are clueless.
Bragging and name-calling come naturally to them. However, since Modi became the Prime Minister, these journalists have been feeling helpless and powerless. Probably because no one has any information about what is going on in the minds of Modi and Amit Shah.
Nitish Nabin is a five-term MLA from Bihar. He belongs to the Kayastha community, which is traditionally considered caste-neutral in a caste-divided society like ours. Apparently, he has done good work as the in-charge of Chhattisgarh and was instrumental in the BJP’s victory in the 2023 assembly elections.
In national politics, he is an unknown entity. It is to be seen and investigated if he is also a choice of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. It is common knowledge that, for the past two years, the hunt was on for the successor to JP Nadda as the future BJP president, but no consensus could be reached, as it was believed that Bhagwat had put his foot down.
It was speculated that Bhagwat wanted someone who would not be a rubber stamp of Modi-Shah. I don’t know if Nitin is the right candidate, but yes, his age gives him a competitive edge over many other candidates.
He is immediately being compared with Nitin Gadkari. Gadkari was a surprise pick by Mohan Bhagwat in 2009 as the party president. Bhagwat then ignored the claims of the Gang of Four, namely, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Anant Kumar, and Venkaiah Naidu, and instead brought in an outsider from Nagpur who was new to Delhi politics.
Although not many would know that Manohar Parrikar was the original choice of Bhagwat, it is said that since Parrikar made a statement about Advani at that time, which was not liked by the party, he was bypassed by Gadkari.
Since Modi became the supreme leader, he has systematically bypassed old and powerful leaders of the Atal-Advani era and replaced them with young and unknown faces. He gambled with Bhupendra Patel, a first-time MLA, as the chief minister of Gujarat, ignoring the claims of stalwarts like Nitin Patel and others.
A similar experiment was done in Uttarakhand when Pushkar Singh Dhami was anointed to the top post in the state. The biggest surprise was Bhajan Lal Sharma in Rajasthan. Everyone was stunned when his name was announced. Vasundhra Raje Scindia’s face turned white when Rajnath Singh disclosed his name to her.
The Candid Camera was alerted to capture that image. In MP, Mohan Yadav replaced a seasoned and popular leader, Shivraj Singh Chauhan. In Odisha, Mohan Majhi became the chief minister when Navin Patnaik was vanquished in his own territory. Many senior leaders, like Dharmendra Pradhan, had no option but to accept the Modi-Shah pick. Even in Delhi, Rekha Gupta was a new name as CM.
Even when Amit Shah was made the national party president, he was a surprise pick. Amit Shah proved his mettle and became the second most powerful leader of the party, superseding seniors like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Raman Singh, and Gopinath Munde.
These so-called seniors had no choice but to play second fiddle to Shah. Nirmala Sitaraman was another case. From being a featherweight leader to emerging as the longest-serving finance minister, she had surprised all. Kiran Rijiju is holding the parliamentary affairs portfolio, which he would not have ever imagined.
Even Om Birla was a surprise choice as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. So far, it appears that Modi has not made a mistake in entrusting heavyweight responsibilities to relatively new faces.
So I am not surprised that another surprise awaited Delhi journalists. But Nitin’s name is the boldest selection if he replaces Nadda as the party president, as is presumed in Delhi corridors and also within the BJP. He will be the youngest party president.
He will require immense acumen and patience to deal with all the senior leaders who have spent decades in politics, unless he decides to be a rubber stamp. So far, he remains an unknown entity, and not many people in the party are aware of his capabilities.
However, someone who has won five assembly elections consecutively cannot be a pushover and should not be dismissed lightly. Let’s see how this Modi experiment pans out. Only the future will tell if this is an experiment of great significance or a forgotten footnote in history.
The writer is Co-Founder, SatyaHindi.com, and author of Hindu Rashtra. He tweets at @ashutosh83B
