Let’s begin by congratulating Nitin Nabin, the BJP’s new national president and the youngest ever to hold the post. His rise is often cited as proof of how the party rewards quiet performers who deliver results without clamour. What does raise eyebrows, however, is that in a party where competition is fierce even for a panchayat or municipal ticket, there was no contest at all for the top organisational post.
All 37 nominations filed for the BJP president’s position were in Nabin’s name. He was clearly the high command’s choice. For clarity, the party president is not the high command. This is as true for the BJP as it is for the Congress. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has repeatedly said that key decisions are taken by the party’s high command. In other words, presidents preside, but power often resides elsewhere.
There is, of course, a crucial difference. The Congress high command is hereditary. In the BJP, the world’s largest political party, the tallest leaders usually emerge from electoral politics. Or at least, that was the idea. The BJP was never meant to mirror the Congress. It was projected as a party with a difference.
During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister between 1998 and 2004, the BJP had four different party presidents. Yet, much of the micro-management rested with then deputy prime minister LK Advani. The party, at the time, had no dearth of stalwarts—leaders who had risen through the ranks, mass leaders, skilled parliamentarians and strong organisational figures.
Fast forward to 2025–26. Until his appointment as working president, not many outside Bihar and Chhattisgarh had even heard of Nitin Nabin. Political observers point out that several senior BJP leaders in Bihar were themselves taken by surprise when his name was announced.
That said, Nabin’s rise is not without merit. He played a significant role in the BJP’s victories in Chhattisgarh—first in the Assembly elections and later in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. His caste identity may also be part of the party’s longer-term calculations. A Kayastha, a community that accounts for barely 1 per cent of the electorate in Bihar’s OBC-dominated political landscape, Nabin could be part of the BJP’s attempt to build a new face in a state where it lacks a dominant leader. Or it could simply reflect deference to the high command.
In its more than 45-year history, the BJP has never witnessed a contest for the post of national president. The choice is always made by consensus. The party follows a formal organisational process—membership drives followed by elections at the booth, mandal, district, regional and state levels—before culminating at the national level.
A party with a difference, it is often said. Yet, there are no differences. Parampara, pratishtha, anushaasan. Adhyaksh mahoday ji.
Which raises a simple question: if there is no real contest, why have dates for filing and withdrawal of nominations at all? That, admittedly, is a rhetorical question in a country where process often becomes performative. We have seen it at the national level, where Narendra Modi—who leads the BJP’s election campaigns and delivers victories—still needs to be “elected” leader of the Parliamentary Party to become Prime Minister. The same ritual plays out in states during the selection of chief ministers. The outcome is rarely in doubt, but democracy, after all, deserves some performance. That too is parampara.
Regional parties, most of them family-run, can hardly be expected to practise internal democracy. But when national parties like the BJP and the Congress also fail to do so, it should worry anyone who believes in democratic institutions. When the pillars of electoral politics themselves lack internal democracy, the structure above them becomes fragile.
In 2022, Shashi Tharoor forced the Congress to hold an election for its president’s post—the first in two decades. In a party that frequently alleges electoral manipulation, Tharoor’s campaign pointed out several irregularities in the internal process as he took on Mallikarjun Kharge, the Gandhi family’s preferred candidate.
The outcome was never really in doubt. Still, it was refreshing to see a semblance of contest in a party where the high command is unmistakably high and firmly in command. If the Congress had its G-23, the BJP has what can only be described as the “Haan G”.
There is a reason why the BJP, despite its sprawling organisational structure—often compared to a banyan tree—does not produce a Tharoor-like dissenter. From being a party with a difference, it has gradually evolved into a party of deference.
How effective Nitin Nabin will be as party president is something only time will reveal. The irony, however, is that he may not get the opportunity to find out for himself.