From Amit Shah’s Call to Yogi to Nitin Nabin’s Rise: How BJP Makes Surprise Leadership Calls

New Delhi: The political history of the Bharatiya Janata Party is full of such decisions, of which even the senior leaders of the party are often not aware. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, while sharing an old incident on Sunday, said that after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the then BJP President Amit Shah had called Yogi Adityanath and directly told him that he had to go to Lucknow and take charge of the state. This conversation took place at Amit Shah's Delhi residence. As unexpected as this decision was at that time, it proved to be equally decisive.

Why did Nitin Nabin's name surprise everyone?

On Sunday, BJP once again repeated its 'surprise style.' Amidst much speculation, Nitin Nabin was declared the working national president of the party. His name was not discussed far and wide for this post. Usually the national president of the party is a big and established face of central politics, but in the case of Nitin Nabin, this tradition also seemed to be broken.

Was Nabin also not aware of the decision?

The most interesting thing was that Nitin Nabin himself had no idea about this decision. He was holding a workers conference in his assembly constituency on Sunday when he got information about this new responsibility. According to party sources, after January 14, he can also be made the full-time national president of BJP.

How big a deal is commanding a party at the age of 45?

If Nitin Nabin gets the responsibility of national president in January, he will become the youngest president of BJP. At that time his age would be only 45 and a half years. Earlier, Amit Shah had become the party president at the age of 49, while Nitin Gadkari had assumed this responsibility at the age of 52. If we look into history, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the president of Jan Sangh at the age of 43 and Lal Krishna Advani at the age of 45.

How often has BJP surprised in choosing the Chief Minister?

BJP has surprised everyone not only in the organization but also in the Chief Minister selection many times.

• The first major example was the appointment of Manohar Lal Khattar as CM in Haryana in 2014.
• Making Yogi Adityanath the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 was also a big political bet.
• In 2021, changing the entire cabinet except the Chief Minister was also in discussion in Gujarat.
• In Uttarakhand, changing the chief minister twice in the same year and finally giving the responsibility to Pushkar Singh Dhami was also a similar decision.

Was the message also given to move the allies forward?

Despite being the largest party in Maharashtra in 2022, BJP made Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister and asked Devendra Fadnavis to become the Deputy Chief Minister. With this, the party gave the message that it also gives leadership opportunities to its allies.

Why does BJP trust new faces?

Making Bhajanlal Sharma the chief minister in Rajasthan, Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh, and first-time MLA Rekha Gupta in Delhi are considered to be a part of this thinking. Bhupendra Patel in Gujarat, Manik Saha in Tripura, and Pushkar Singh Dhami in Uttarakhand are also such examples.

Will the surprises continue in the future?

Be it the decision of canceling the ticket or bringing forward new faces, BJP has been proving time and again that its decisions remain a mystery till the last moment. Nitin Nabin's name has also been added to the same long list, which has once again raised the question as to who will be the next surprise.