Jagat Prakash Nadda, the former health minister who had stayed out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi new cabinet, has been appointed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s working president.
The appointment was cleared by the BJP’s powerful parliamentary board, the top decision-making body of the party.
A Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh, Nadda will be formally elected as the chief of the ruling party after the party’s membership drive and organisational elections are over by December-January.
Amit Shah, who has become union home minister, will continue as the BJP president till Nadda is formally elected to the post.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced Nadda’s appointment.
“Amit Shah said at the meeting that he was unable to devote time to the party as he was also looking after the home ministry and the party president’s post should be given to some other leader,” Singh told reporters after the parliamentary board meeting.
“The board members urged Shah to continue till the completion of the membership drive,” Singh said. The BJP will launch its membership drive from July 6 and aims to enroll at least 2.20 crore new members over and above its exiting cadre base of 11 crore.
Once the membership drive is over, the BJP will hold its internal election at the mandal, district and state level. The election of the BJP president can take place only after organisational elections are complete in 50% of the states.
“This entire exercise will take about 6 months,” the senior BJP leader later said, adding that
Nadda’s appointment was designed to ensure a smooth transition in light of Amit Shah’s induction in PM Modi’s new team.
As he congratulated Nadda on his new assignment, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also credited Amit Shah for the many elections that the party had won after his elevation as party boss.
58-year-old Nadda has been an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) veteran, the students wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh where he has spent many years as a pracharak of the RSS.
Nadda is widely respected in the RSS for his integrity and the years of service that he has rendered to the cause championed by the Sangh parivar. He became president of BJP’s youth wing at an early age of 31 in 1991 and shares good relations with all factions of the party. Nadda was first elected to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1993 and was twice re-elected to the state assembly in 1998 and 2007. He was a cabinet minister in the BJP government between 1998 and 2003 and also between 2008 and 2010.
Nadda moved to the national politics in 2010 as party’s national general secretary after Nitin Gadkari, the Nagpur leader backed by the RSS, was appointed BJP chief in 2009.
Nadda made his entry in the Rajya Sabha in 2012 and was appointed a minister in the Narendra Modi government in the first expansion of the council of ministers in November 2014. He held the crucial health ministry since then.
Nadda was in contention for the BJP president’s post in 2014 after Rajnath Singh became the home minister in Narendra Modi’s first term as Prime Minister. However, he lost out to Amit Shah who was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s choice for the BJP president post then.
First Published:
Jun 17, 2019 20:08 IST
Source: HindustanTimes