New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has extended its president J.P. Nadda’s term till June next year at the party’s national executive meeting on Tuesday, January 16.
While announcing the development, Union home minister Amit Shah said that it will win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with a bigger mandate than 2019.
Nadda’s extension was proposed by defence minister Rajnath Singh, a former party president like him, and the executive unanimously endorsed it, Shah told reporters in Delhi.
The BJP’s parliamentary board has already approved the extension of Nadda’s term as the party president.
“I, on behalf of the party, express heartfelt gratitude to Naddaji for his committed leadership and contributions, and extend the best wishes for his future term,” Shah said.
Although the BJP consistently criticised the Congress for lacking internal democracy, Nadda was not elected.
The Times of India reported Shah explaining why the party president was not chosen through an election process.
He said that the membership campaign of the party could not take place due to COVID-19 restrictions, therefore, it was not advisable to hold the polls for the party president. Therefore, a decision was taken to extend Nadda’s tenure.
With Nadda set to lead the party during the Lok Sabha elections, he will be following the footsteps of his predecessor Shah, whose tenure was also extended so as to allow him to spearhead the organisation during the 2019 polls.
Shah expressed confidence that the BJP, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Nadda, will achieve a bigger win than the last general elections.
The minister lauded Nadda’s leadership, saying he connected the party organisation with the service of people during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“During the pandemic, our party has done a lot of significant works under Naddaji‘s leadership; be it about providing food and rations to the poor or taking people to hospitals for check-ups and treatment,” he added.
Shah further said that throughout Nadda’s leadership term, the BJP has worked on the principle of ‘Seva Hi Sangathan‘ right from the booth till the national levels.
Also read: What the Recent Elections Say About Congress, BJP and AAP
Noting that the party won many state assembly polls under Nadda, Shah said the BJP won 73 assembly bypolls out of 120 held during his tenure.
It was under Nadda’s leadership that the BJP performed well in Bihar, and again formed the government in Maharashtra and Haryana, he added.
The BJP won assembly polls in Assam, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh during Nadda’s tenure as the party president, Shah said, adding that it also formed the government on its own for the first time in Goa.
Talking about the recent victory in the Gujarat assembly polls, Shah said, “Under Nadda’s leadership, the BJP organisation converted Modi’s magical leadership into votes and the party registered a record-breaking victory by winning 156 assembly seats.”
Nadda had become the BJP president on January 20, 2020, for a term of three years.