BJP's new team eyes UP and Lok Sabha battle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the newly appointed office-bearers in a post on X, saying the team combined organisational experience with energy and grassroots connect.

Nabin, in his own post on X, called the team a blend of experience and energy that would give the organisation new momentum under Modi’s leadership.

Key numbers

According to the report, the reconstituted national team includes nearly 50 new office-bearers out of 65 names announced, marking a significant break from the previous team. The team draws representation from 23 states and Union territories.

Every major faith finds representation, with one Sikh member, two Christian members, and one member each from the Muslim, Jain and Parsi communities, the report said.

The team also skews relatively young: six office-bearers are below 40 years of age, 15 are in the 40-49 age group, and 21 fall in the 50-59 bracket. It includes three former chief ministers and 12 women.

A BJP statement cited by the report said such balanced appointments would allow the incoming national president’s executive team to function with a strong awareness of the country’s geographical diversity and regional nuances.

Focus on Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls early next year, has emerged as the biggest focus of the reset, according to the report. Eight leaders from the state have found a place in Nabin’s team, the most prominent being Smriti Irani.

Among national vice-presidents, Rekha Verma and Prof Tariq Mansoor are from Uttar Pradesh. Smriti Irani and Harish Dwivedi have been named national general secretaries, while two national secretaries and two Morcha presidents are also from the state.

Return of sidelined leaders

The new team also marks the comeback of several leaders who had been sidelined in recent years, including Smriti Irani, Ram Madhav, and former chief ministers Biplab Kumar Deb and Tirath Singh Rawat, according to the report.

Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, called her return to the party’s top organisational posts “deeply humbling” and thanked Modi and Nabin for reposing faith in her.

Ram Madhav’s return as national vice-president was also flagged as significant by the report. A former RSS spokesperson deputed to the BJP in 2014, Madhav had emerged as one of the party’s most influential general secretaries during its first term in power, playing a key role in the party’s expansion in the northeast and its alliance with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir after the 2014 assembly polls.

His influence waned after the BJP-PDP government collapsed in 2018, and he was dropped as national general secretary when then BJP president J P Nadda constituted his team in September 2020. He was later brought back to oversee the party’s Jammu and Kashmir assembly election campaign along with Union minister G Kishan Reddy in 2024, according to the report.

The 2027 test

The first meeting of Nabin’s new team is scheduled for August 22, TOI reported, citing news agency ANI and government sources. However, the team’s real test will come in early 2027, when several states including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab go to the polls.

Also read: Nabin’s BJP team blends fresh faces with heavyweights

The BJP faces a challenging task in Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party and Congress together put the party on the backfoot in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the report noted.

Meanwhile, with the organisational changes now in place, attention is expected to turn to a possible reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.

With inputs from TOI

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