New Delhi:
With Amit Shah all set to join the Cabinet of the new Narendra Modi government, Union Health Minister JP Nadda is most likely to succeed him as BJP national president, according to reports. According to news agency IANS, Nadda is expected to work closely with Shah even after the latter demits office for the election whirligig simply doesn't end.
Nadda will have to oversee the election campaign strategy. Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir may go to assembly polls later this year. Early next year, his battle will Delhi, where the BJP is eyeing to make a comeback.
Nadda, 59, is a Brahmin and a Rajya Sabha member and keeps a low profile. He is also the parliamentary board secretary of the BJP. He is known as a master strategist in his party. The party had given him charge of Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded hustings. The party bagged 62 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats. The Apna Dal bagged two against a caste calculus driven combine of the BSP and the SP.
During his first visit to Lucknow after being appointed the BJP's election in-charge for the state, Nadda exuded confidence that the BJP will win 74 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and downplayed the SP-BSP alliance in the state for the general elections.
Shah was declared elected from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 5.57 lakh votes against his nearest Congress rival CJ Chavda in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. Shah polled 8.94 lakh votes, while Chavda secured 3.37 lakh votes.
In the 2014 general elections, BJP veteran LK Advani, 91, had won the seat.
