J P Nadda is BJP working president

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Former Union Minister J P Nadda was appointed as BJP’s working president during the party’s parliamentary board meeting on Monday.

The decision by BJP’s highest decision-making body wasannounced by former party president and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh afterthe meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister NarendraModi and BJP chiefAmit Shah. Shah will remain party’s national president.

   

“J P Nadda will be party’s working president,”Singh told reporters.

According to sources, the board requested Shah to continuetill the party’s membership drive and organisational elections were completedbut he pointed out that being the Union Home Minister he would be engaged in somany other matters.

This is for the first time party has appointed a workingpresident.

Shah’s tenure ends in December 2019 and he may not like toget an extension as the party has principal of ‘one man, one post’, sourcessaid.

Nadda, currently BJP’s parliamentary board secretary, willcontinue as working president till BJP’s organisational election are over,sources said and indicated that he may succeed Shah.

Nadda, 58, was given responsibility of Uttar Pradesh aheadof the LokSabha polls in which the BJP bagged 62 out of the 80 seats in thepolitically-critical state.

A three-time MLA, Nadda represents Himachal Pradesh inRajyaSabha and enjoys the confidence of the party’s top brass. He was thehealth minister in the Modi government in the previous term.

The decision to appoint Nadda came days after the BJP at ameeting of its national office bearers decided to carry out a membership driveto increase its members by 20 per cent followed by the party’s organisationalpolls.

The party will start the drive from July 6, birthanniversary of its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

The entire exercise may take several months to be concluded,which means that the party may fight assembly elections in three states —Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra — later this year under Shah and Nadda.

Nadda who rose from the ranks of an ABVP leader, has carvedhis own space in national politics with his low profile and shrewdorganisational skills, his aides here say.

In the recently-concluded LokSabha elections, Nadda scriptedthe BharatiyaJanata Party’s (BJP) stupendous show in Uttar Pradesh by workingas a back-room leader.

He has been active on the national political scene since2010 when he was picked by then BJP chief NitinGadkari to join his new team. Hewas then made the party’s national General Secretary.

Born on December 2, 1960, Nadda completed his graduationfrom Patna and holds a postgraduate degree in political science and an LL.B.degree from the Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla.

His father NarainLallNadda was the Vice-Chancellor of PatnaUniversity.

Starting his political career in 1978 as a student leader ofthe AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, Naddahad worked with Gadkari and Shah in the party’s youth wing — theBharatiyaYuvaMorcha — from 1991 to 1994.His wife MallikaNadda, who teaches history inthe Himachal Pradesh University, was also an ABVP activist and served as itsnational General Secretary from 1988 to 1999.

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