New Delhi: When Nitin Nabin was in Class 12, politics was not part of the plan.
One of his school friends recalls that in a slam book he filled out at the time, Nabin wrote that politics was the last profession he would ever want to pursue. Nearly three decades later, the same man has been appointed the working president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the world’s largest political organisation, in a turn that even those closest to him say he did not see coming.
People who have known Nabin since his school and college years say politics was never an ambition he consciously nurtured. His entry, they argue, was shaped more by circumstance than by design.
That circumstance arrived in 2006, when his father, the then sitting BJP MLA, Navin Kishor Sinha from Patna (West), a traditional strong hold of Jan Sangh and later BJP, passed away. This constituency earlier was represented by Thakur Prasad, the father of now Patna Member of Parliament, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shailendra Nath Srivastava.
At the time, according to people familiar with the developments, it was the late Sushil Kumar Modi who proposed Nitin Nabin’s name as the party’s candidate for the by-election, nudging him into active politics at a moment of personal loss.
Once he stepped in, those who have watched his journey say there was no half-measure. One of his childhood friend and a senior lawyer practising in Delhi, told this newspaper that after deciding to enter politics, Nabin became completely absorbed by it. Party work, the welfare of workers and the governance responsibilities attached to the ministries he handled became an all-consuming preoccupation. “If you call him,” he said, “he will talk about that only.”
That immersion came with personal costs. Long-time associates say the expanding responsibilities handed to him by the party over the years meant long stretches away from family life, a sacrifice that became routine as his organisational and governmental roles multiplied.
The surprise element of his elevation was underscored just days ago. According to people familiar with his movements, Nabin had visited the Pitambara Peeth, also known as the Pitambara Shakti Peeth, in Datia, Madhya Pradesh, last Sunday. Those with him at the time say there was no indication then that he was about to be appointed working president of the BJP, a reflection, they argue, of how tightly the party keeps its decisions until the last moment.
Navin, a Kayasth by caste, has, among others, defeated Luv Sinha, the son of Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha in the November 2020 assembly polls.
Family members, after receiving news of the appointment, said they were overwhelmed by the responsibility placed on him and expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and party president JP Nadda for the trust reposed in him, according to relatives.
Nabin’s elevation is also notable within the party’s organisational history. His predecessor in the role, J.P. Nadda, is also from Patna and went on to become the party’s national president, a post he continues to hold.
At 45, Nabin is relatively young by the standards of national party leadership, but his political career spans nearly two decades. He has won repeated elections from Patna’s Bankipur constituency, served in key ministerial roles in the Bihar government, and handled multiple organisational responsibilities within the BJP and its youth wing. Party colleagues point to this layered exposure, cutting across elections, governance and organisation, as central to his rise.
They also cite his role as the BJP in-charge for Chhattisgarh, a state considered organisationally crucial, as a significant test. Those who worked with him during that assignment argue that his handling of the role strengthened his standing with the central leadership and contributed to his current elevation.
For those who have known him longest, the appointment completes a trajectory that began with reluctance and evolved into total absorption. The teenager who once saw politics as a profession to avoid now finds himself at the helm of a party organisation that demands precisely the kind of single-minded engagement his friends say has come to define him.
