Nitin Nabin: set to be the youngest and first from Bihar to occupy top post in BJP
Nitin Nabin was born in Ranchi, now in Jharkhand. He belongs to the Kayasth community and comes from a family with deep roots in the BJP. His entry into active politics came at a relatively young age, shaped by both family legacy and electoral opportunity.
Forty-five-year-old Nitin Nabin, who is five-term member of Bihar legislative assembly, has been appointed National Working President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is seen as a precursor to his eventual elevation to the party’s top post.
Nabin is set to be the first from Bihar to occupy the top post in BJP, which has dominated the Indian politics since 2014, winning three consecutive national general elections and having direct rules in 14 states/UTs and ruling six more with alliance partners.
Once formally elected as president, Nitin Nabin will be the youngest to occupy the post. He will break the record of Nitin Gadkari, who was 52 years old when he was appointed BJP president in 2009.
Nabin was president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Bihar in 2016-19 and handled BJP’s Lok Sabha and assembly campaign in Sikkim in 2019 before the party made him a co-incharge of Congress-governed Chhattisgarh in 2021.
While Congress was considered a favourite to retain office in the 2023 Chhattisgarh assembly polls, his input to the BJP leadership predicted the party’s win instead, as it was to happen. He was then made in charge of the Lok Sabha poll campaign in Chhattisgarh in 2024. BJP won 10 of its 11 seats, and he was made the state’s organisational in-charge as the party leadership came to appreciate his political acumen.
Youngest among major political party chiefs
Nitin Nabin is also the youngest amongst all the presidents or head of other national and important parties, namely Congress, Samajwadi Party, NCP (Sharad Pawar), National Conference, TMC, BSP and DMK.
Congress Party President Mallikarjun Kharge is 83 years old, while Nationalist Congress Party-SP (NCP-SP) chief Sharad Pawar is 85.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is 70, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) boss and ex-Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati is 69, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is 72. In each of these parties, leadership continues to rest with veterans who have dominated their organisations for decades.
Other leaders older than Nitin Nabin include Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is 57; National Conference leader and Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, aged 55; and Samajwadi Party president and ex-Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, 52.
Against this backdrop, Nitin Nabin’s age places him in a distinct category. For a leader getting appointed for a major national role even before turning 50 symbolises a generational contrast that has increasingly shaped political narratives.
Nitin Nabin’s family background
Nitin Nabin was born in Ranchi, now in Jharkhand. He belongs to the Kayasth community and comes from a family with deep roots in the BJP. His entry into active politics came at a relatively young age, shaped by both family legacy and electoral opportunity.
Nabin was just 26 years old when he was fielded by the BJP in 2006 from the Patna West assembly seat. The by-election was necessitated by the death of his father, veteran party leader Navin Kishore Sinha. Nabin went on to win the contest by nearly 60,000 votes, announcing himself as a formidable electoral presence.
He is married and has a son and a daughter.
Political Journey
Over the next two decades, Nabin consolidated his position within the party and in Bihar politics. Now 45, he is a five-term MLA after consecutive wins from the rechristened Bankipur constituency. His most recent assembly victory earlier this year came with a margin of over 51,000 votes.
Even as speculation around his national role gathered momentum, Nabin continued attending public functions in his constituency, where he thanked party workers for his latest electoral win, according to PTI.
At one such event, held much before the announcement of his appointment as BJP national working president, he said he bows before the workers of the party whose hard work, according to him, “creates many Nitin Nabins”.
Nabin held ministerial positions multiple times in the state government. Within the BJP organisation, he has worked extensively with the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
He has also served as the party’s prabhari for Chhattisgarh and Sikkim. His role during the party’s revival in Chhattisgarh, in particular, was praised within BJP circles, party leaders said.
