In this Special Report, India Today’s Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai analyses the surprise appointment of Nitin Nabin as the BJP’s Working President.
00:00All right, let me take the first question to my colleague and our consulting editor, Rajdeep Sardesai, who's joining us all the way from Mumbai in a cotton shirt while we are all here wrapped up.
00:10But Rajdeep, true to the BJP's nature, nobody had a clue on who the working president is.
00:19Why do you think the BJP has gone in for the name of Nitin Nabeen?
00:23A clear generational shift. How do you look at it?
00:27Well, firstly, you're absolutely right. No one in any of their political commentary mentioned Nitin Nabeen as a potential BJP president or a working president in this instance.
00:40Clearly shows that when it comes to the BJP, there are only two people who know really what is happening.
00:46One is Prime Minister Modi and the other is Home Minister Amit Shah. I call them Gujarat's Jodi number one.
00:51There are those who will call them BJP or India's political Jodi number one. And that's exactly what they are.
00:56They like to keep this secret surprise element has been part of Prime Minister Modi's political playbook for long.
01:03And I think what they've done with Nitin Nabeen is tried to send out a signal that they are serious about effecting a generational change in the BJP.
01:14Critics will say, perhaps rightly, that Nitin Nabeen will be a rubber stamp because at the end of the day, he's not someone who's going to challenge the authority of Modi Shah.
01:22And there are very few who really will do that. So you don't choose a peer. You choose someone from another generation.
01:28And I thought it was very interesting, Preeti, before coming on your show, I was going through all the BJP chief ministers who have been appointed in the last few years.
01:37Barring Bhupendra Patel, who is now 63, all the other chief ministers of the BJP are between 50 and 60.
01:43You just have to go through them. Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis, Mohan Yadav, Pushkar Dhami, Nayib Saini, all of them in that 50 to 60 age group.
01:53So to the credit of Modi Shah, they have genuinely effected a generational change at one level.
01:59They've also, as a result, ensured that their supremacy remains unchallenged.
02:03This is not like the Vajpayee, Advani era in that sense. Here it is very clear, the BJP president will, in all likelihood, follow the orders of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah.
02:16But Nitin Nabeen is an interesting character because he's won, at the age of 45, already four big consecutive victories in Bihar.
02:24He came first through a by-election and comes through an old BJP RSS family.
02:29His father was someone who fought during the emergency. So you've got someone as the son of Nabeen Kishore Prasad Sina,
02:37someone who comes from the RSS BJP, therefore is a dyed-in-the-wool sang-paribar person, not someone brought in from the outside.
02:47And I think it is indicative of how the Modi Shah model is able to effect a generational change.
02:55And I just want to add one more element to that because if you see one of the challenges for Indian politics for parties like the Congress,
03:01why are they called the Grand Old Party?
03:03Because they've not been able to fully effect that generational change so smoothly.
03:08There's nothing like a Mark Darshak Mandel de jure or de facto in the Congress party.
03:13The BJP, like it or not, has been able to do so possibly because they are in power.
03:18So you can give the older guard governor's pose and the younger members get chief ministerships and in this case BJP state president.
03:27So there is that messaging that we are a younger party.
03:30We've got a leader once again from the Hindi heartland in this instance as a chief minister,
03:35just as a party president on the back of a big victory in Bihar.
03:39I think it sends all the right signals as far as the BJP leadership is concerned.
03:44Well, you know, one thing you're correct, Rajdeep, that nobody really had a clue.
03:49I doubt even if Nitin Nabeen had a clue that he was going to be elevated to party president when his name came out.
03:55You know, many thought that he's, you know, been elevated to the post of Bihar party president and not the BJP party president.
04:02I still remember being in Bihar where all other BJP netas and leaders were very, very busy.
04:07I actually met him twice where he spoke with us on camera, off camera, gave us a lot of gyan on what was going on.
04:14So in that sense, bang on, nobody had a clue.
04:17But Rajdeep, the larger question, what one thought, you know, earlier that this was basically,
04:22that's why it has taken so long for the working president or the president of the BJP to be named,
04:28is that there was a lot of give and take and to and fro between the RSS and the BJP.
04:33Who do you think has got the upper hand here? Nitin Nabeen has RSS influence, but really not even is not from the ABVP.
04:42He's from the Yuva Morcha. More of the BJP getting an upper hand, you think here?
04:48Look, I think, you know, given the fact that Mr. Modi and Amit Shah are so firmly in control of the BJP,
04:54particularly after the manner in which in the last 18 months they've won a series of electoral victories post the 2024 setback,
05:02clearly they are in charge. And in that sense, by by making someone like Nitin Nabeen, I repeat,
05:08you send out a message that, look, this is a party in contrast to others,
05:12which looks for younger talent and tries to reward that younger talent,
05:18someone who's been a karyakarta of the party.
05:20So you're you're suggesting that there is a there is a progression.
05:23You could accuse the Nitin Nabeen also being a dinist in the sense that his father was a very senior BJP leader.
05:31But the truth of the matter is, I think the party president's post in the BJP is no longer someone who's vying for the top position.
05:40This is someone who clearly belongs to the next generation.
05:43And therefore, I think it only consolidates Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah's hold over the party.
05:49I think you should see Nitin Nabeen's elevation also in the context of what happened in UP,
05:53where you've chosen Pankaj Chaudhary, who's someone who some would suggest was again a bit of a dark horse,
06:00was not expected, but someone whose relationship with Yogi Adityanath will be put under the scanner,
06:05will be questioned.
06:06Is this all part of preparing a line of succession after Modi who,
06:11wherein possibly Mr. Amit Shah would like to consolidate his position within the BJP?
06:15Interestingly, about Nitin Nabeen, he is someone who has spent a lot of time also on organizational issues during elections.
06:24Chhattisgarh was an example.
06:26A friend of mine, a journalist, tells me a story about Nitin Nabeen was involved in Chhattisgarh's campaign,
06:32along with the likes of Om Mathur, in 2023.
06:35And he had a bet that the BJP will win.
06:40When everyone else was predicting, even the exit polls were predicting that Bhupesh Bagel and the Congress would win the election.
06:47And when the BJP won, Nitin Nabeen rang up all the journalists and said,
06:51I was proved right, wasn't I proven right?
06:54So he's gone through, he has a proven track record of winning elections,
06:59of helping the party organizationally, and of being just 45.
07:03So I think from all, the BJP's ticked a lot of the boxes there.
07:08You could argue on the caste factor, but there also there's a balancing act in terms of the fact that you've got a Kayas now as your president,
07:14working president, you've got Mr. Shah and Mr. Modi, Mr. Modi, the OBC face.
07:18I think the BJP plays this politics very, very well.
07:23They do not, and I've always said this, when any political commentary says so-and-so is the front runner,
07:30you can be sure that that person is never going to become chief minister or a party president.
07:36The classic example, Bhupendra Patel in Gujarat.
07:38No one ever had his name when Vijay Rupani suddenly resigned.
07:42But he became the chief minister and he's now been in power there for almost seven, eight years.
07:46So with Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, expect the unexpected.
07:50So I think the RSS clearly would have, at best, could have vetoed someone,
07:57but I don't think they were going to object to someone who's come through the ranks like Nitin Nabeen.
08:01Well, you know, you gave the example of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, even Delhi, prime examples of what Rajdeep was suggesting.
08:10That nobody really had a clue, but five terms, MLA, minister, organization man.
08:15If you remember, there was a picture that went viral, viewers, especially during the Bihar campaign,
08:19where you had Smithi Irani eating Golgappas.
08:22Standing next to him was Nitin Nabeen, who had taken her to the best Golgappa stand in Bihar.
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