Nabin was elected BJP president on 20 January 2026. As of 14 August, he has completed 206 days in office without announcing a new national team.
More than 200 days after taking over as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national president, Nitin Nabin is yet to announce his new team of national office-bearers, with the prolonged delay beginning to cause unease within sections of the party. Nabin was elected BJP president on 20 January 2026. As of 14 August, he has completed 206 days in office without announcing a new national team. The delay has already taken the exercise well beyond the timeframe seen under Amit Shah, who announced his team 38 days after taking over as BJP president in July 2014. J.P. Nadda, however, took 250 days to announce his team after becoming party president in January 2020. Significantly, according to party sources, the list of Nabin’s new team has already been finalised. The list was finalised in May, but the announcement has since been held back amid a series of political developments and organisational considerations. The delay, therefore, is not due to the BJP still working on the names, but over when and how the new team should be formally announced. Sources said the political calculations changed repeatedly as the BJP dealt with a series of developments outside the organisation.
These included the movement of seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs into the BJP in April. The seven MPs merged with the BJP, significantly altering the political arithmetic in the Rajya Sabha. The political churn in West Bengal also became a factor. Three former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs, Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik, joined the BJP in July after resigning from the TMC and the Upper House. The BJP subsequently fielded the three in the Rajya Sabha bypolls from West Bengal. This came amid the earlier movement of 20 Lok Sabha members who had won on a Trinamool Congress ticket and subsequently broke away and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. Party sources have also pointed to developments surrounding the studentled “Cockroach” protests and their political fallout in Bihar. The issue became a significant factor in the run-up to the Bankipur Assembly bypoll, where the BJP suffered an unexpected defeat after holding the constituency for three decades. The result acquired particular significance for the party because Nabin had represented Bankipur for five consecutive terms before moving to the Rajya Sabha following his elevation as BJP president. However, according to party sources, these political developments are only one part of the reason for the delay.
A major consideration is the longer political horizon for which Nabin’s team is being constituted. The new team is expected to steer the organisation through the next several years and will therefore play a crucial role in the party’s preparations for the 2029 Lok Sabha election and the period beyond it. This has made the exercise particularly sensitive because several senior leaders currently holding positions in the existing national team are not expected to be accommodated in the new arrangement, according to party sources. The possibility of senior leaders being dropped has generated resistance within sections of the organisation and has complicated the timing of the announcement despite the list having already been finalised. There are also consultations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over the composition of the team. Party sources said the Sangh has been pushing for the inclusion of certain names, adding another layer to the process before the final list is formally announced. The prolonged delay has also begun to raise concerns within sections of the BJP, with some party leaders questioning why the announcement has taken so long when the list has already been finalised.
The BJP is an organisation where key political and organisational decisions are generally taken swiftly through a tightly coordinated process, and the fact that Nabin took charge in January and the team was finalised as early as May, but remains unannounced nearly three months later, has caused unease in some quarters. Party sources said the delay could have been avoided, particularly since the new team is intended to give organisational direction to the party for the next several years. The prolonged uncertainty over the announcement is being viewed by some within the party as undesirable at a time when the Lok Sabha elections are less than three years away.
The names for the new organisational team were also understood to have been finalised after consultations involving the BJP’s top leadership. At one stage, the announcement was expected within days, but it did not materialise. The delay therefore puts Nabin on course to approach J.P. Nadda’s 250- day mark for announcing a new national team. If the announcement remains pending through late September, Nabin would surpass Nadda’s record and take longer than any BJP president since the BJP government came to power in 2014 to announce a new national team.
