Nadda to take over as BJP chief from Shah on Jan 20

Eight months after nomination as the working president, Jagat Prakash Nadda (59) will take over on January 20 as the President of BJP from Amit Shah (55) for a term of three years. The party has fixed next Monday for filing of the nominations but the past tradition of the BJP ensures Nadda getting elected unopposed. He was made the working president to enable time to Amit Shah to handle his new responsibility as the home minister.

A Rajya Sabha member since 2002 and a health minister in the first Modi government, Nadda has been thrice MLA of Himachal Pradesh as also cabinet minister in the state, though he is originally from Bihar until 1980 where inspired by the JP movement to join the Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti and also secretary, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in Patna University from 1977 to 1979. BA LLB and father of two sons, Nadda was president of the Himachal Pradesh University

Students Union in 1983-84, general secretary of BJP Himachal Pradesh in 1990-91, President of the All India Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1991 to 1994 and the BJP's national general secretary since May 2010 before elevation as the working president.

An immediate challenge before Nadda will be Delhi Assembly elections slated on February 8, though he had no role in selection of the candidates that was done by Amit Shah as his last act as the party president. Nadda was in-charge of Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where the party won 62 of the 80 seats.

Bihar, once his home state, is also having the Assembly elections later this year and that would show how Nadda is able to maintain the alliance with JD(U) of CM Nitish Kumar. He has to also prepare for the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021 but indications are that Prime Minister Modi will give that responsibility to Amit Shah, who has invested a lot of time in the state creating a fighting front against Trinamul Congress chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP's biggest challenge is to capture power in West Bengal. Nadda will have to also handle the Assam Assembly elections next year where the party's prospects are dimmed due to the controversy over the CAA. Shah brought the Bill and got it passed in two days in both the Houses of Parliament with the hidden agenda of rescuing the Hindus who were ousted as citizens in NRC conducted in the state. The BJP had hoped most of those declared the non-citizens in NRC would be the Muslims illegally migrating from Bangladesh but 80% of them turned out to be the Hindus.