MODI'S QUIET VETTING DELIVERS NITIN NABIN AS BJP CHIEF

A quiet, data-driven vetting by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to the elevation of 45-year-old Nitin Nabin as BJP president, signalling a clear generational shift.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The selection of the Bharatiya Janata Party's new president, 45-year-old Nitin Nabin, was the outcome of a tightly structured analytical exercise spread over three months, in which the leadership decided at the outset that the party would be headed by a younger leader, signalling a calibrated generational shift within the organisation.

The process began with the preparation of a long list of around 100 young leaders drawn from across the party. This was followed by the constitution of a dedicated internal research team whose sole mandate was to identify, observe and systematically evaluate potential leaders against a clearly defined organisational framework. Age was not treated as a standalone criterion but as part of a broader assessment of longterm leadership viability.

Over multiple stages, different arms of the party engaged with these leaders in various organisational forums to assess ideological clarity, administrative reasoning, organisational understanding and political judgement. These interactions were complemented by inputs gathered and analysed by the research team, ensuring that the evaluation remained continuous, layered and structured rather than episodic.

As the process advanced, the list was narrowed from 100 to 50 and eventually to a final shortlist of 10.