Rajya Sabha member and former health minister JP Nadda has been appointed as the working president of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been elected as Amit Shah has now taken charge as Union home minister though, for now, Amit Shah will remain BJP chief, but the workload will be shared with Nadda. In the previous government, Nadda was instrumental in furthering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programmes including Ayushman Bharat.
The decision to appoint Nadda was taken in a BJP parliamentary board meeting which was chaired by PM Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, and senior leader Sushma Swaraj among others. Speaking on JP Nadda’s appointment, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “Amit Shah handled the responsibility of being BJP chief successfully for five years. Now that he has become home minister, he [Amit Shah] requested someone else take charge of the party. BJP Parliamentary board has selected JP Nadda as the working president.”
The 59-year-old Nadda, will be overseeing BJP’s election strategy for the upcoming state assembly polls in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The BJP will likely get a new president by the start of next year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him in his tweet. “Shri @JPNadda is a diligent Karyakarta of the Party, who has risen through the ranks due to his hardwork and organisational skills. Humble and affable, he is widely respected across the BJP family. Congratulations to him on becoming the Working President of the Party.”
Mr. Nadda thanked PM Modi and Amit Shah on his twitter handle. “I will try to strengthen the party as its worker…serving the party is like worship for me,” he said.