New Delhi:

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Health Minister JP Nadda is likely to be the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, sources told NDTV Friday afternoon.

Mr Nadda is currently also the BJP’s National President. His term ends this month but he may be asked to continue till four state polls due later this year are completed and his replacement can be elected.

Till then a Working President may be appointed to assist him in day-to-day duties. 

Mr Nadda – a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state – took oath as part of the new cabinet last week; he was also given charge of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry.

He returned to a familiar role, having also served as Health Minister in the first Modi government.

READ | BJP Chief JP Nadda Returns As Health Minister In Modi 3.0

After he was sworn in there was speculation Mr Nadda would step down from his BJP National President post, which he took over from current Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2020.

However, it now appears Mr Nadda will remain the BJP’s top organisational leader.

Party laws say a National President is elected only after organisational elections are completed in 50 per cent of all states, which is expected to continue for about six months.

The new president, therefore, may be elected in December-January.

About JP Nadda

Mr Nadda, who holds a degree in law, started his political journey with the ABVP, or Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of the RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that is the BJP’s ideological mentor. He became leader of the party’s youth wing, the BJYM, or the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, in 1991.

He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2012 – from Himachal Pradesh – and was made a member of the BJP’s parliamentary board in 2014, when Amit Shah took over as the party’s President.

He earlier also served as a MLA in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly; he won the Bilaspur seat three times – 1993, 1998, and 2007 – and served as the Health Minister between 1998 and 2003.

In April this year he was elected as the Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.

2024 Lok Sabha Election Result

PM Modi’s BJP won 240 seats in the just concluded Lok Sabha poll, 32 short of a majority in the 543-member lower house — its worst showing in a decade.

This has left the BJP reliant on two big partners – Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP (16 MPs) and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (12 MPs). And with help from other allies, it sits comfortably on 293 seats.

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