The most important reason behind the selection of Nitin Nabin seems to be the strategy of the top leadership of BJP to prepare the next generation leaders of the party. Although some are linking it to the next elections, some are looking at its caste equation.
A player who has seen thirty-thirty-five springs in the playground is not considered young. Barring a few exceptions, most of the veteran players have shown their best performance to the world by that time. In films, actors beyond forty come under the category of senior or elderly. But, who is considered youth in politics? In fact, at the age when people from other fields are on the decline after reaching the peak, people’s career in politics begins at that stage. From business to job, the concept of ‘give opportunity to youth’ has been prevalent for a long time. There is no tradition of giving important responsibilities to the youth in politics. In politics, experience always had the upper hand compared to youthful enthusiasm. It is generally believed that political maturity comes only with age. That’s why sixty year old leaders are also often called young leaders.
Although the term Young Turk has been in use since the time of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, but whenever there is talk of handing over leadership to the Young Turks, the mainstream parties ignore them. Therefore, when the Bharatiya Janata Party suddenly announced the name of Bihar Youth Minister Nitin Nabin as the working national president, not only the common people but also the experts on political matters were surprised. Nitin is not considered a national level leader of BJP and he has no political identity outside Bihar. Despite this, BJP has made him the national president, which has important political implications.
Nitin is only 45 years old, he was born in the same year when BJP came into existence as a new political party. In politics, usually people of this age get the responsibility of leading the youth wing of the party. But Nitin has got the command of leadership of the party which has been in power in the country for the last 11 years and whose popularity is at its peak after winning three consecutive Lok Sabha elections during the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah era. So, is Nitin ready to take on such a big responsibility?
Although Nitin’s political experience is not less. His political journey started at the age of 26 due to the untimely demise of his father Naveen Kishore Prasad Sinha. His father was one of the big leaders of Bihar BJP and in the November 2005 assembly elections, he won on BJP ticket from Patna West region. He died a few weeks after the election results were declared and Nitin won on the BJP ticket from the same seat. After that, he won four more assembly elections consecutively and became a minister in Nitish cabinet.
Political commentators are analyzing the reasons behind Nitin’s selection as the working president of BJP in their own ways. Some are linking it to the elections to be held in other states including West Bengal, while some are finding caste equation behind it. However, the most important reason behind Nitin’s selection shows the strategy of the top leadership of BJP to groom the next generation leaders of the party. Nitin may not be a well-known name on the national stage of politics, but he has been counted among the most hardworking workers of the party in Bihar. The BJP made him in-charge of Chhattisgarh elections, where the party’s landslide victory enhanced his political stature. By selecting him, BJP has also tried to send the message that any party worker can reach the highest position. Although, even during the era of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, young leaders like Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley were playing leading roles in the party. But, during the Modi era, many young leaders got the opportunity to fulfill important responsibilities at the Center and states and many old leaders including Advani gradually disappeared from the political scene. The policy of preparing the youth for the coming times by giving them important responsibilities is the main reason for the selection of Nitin Nabin.
But will other parties also take the initiative to give the command of leadership to young leaders like BJP? At present, it does not seem possible to hand over leadership of the main opposition party Congress to any leader other than Rahul Gandhi, because the USP of the party is the Gandhi family. In most of the other parties of the country, leadership has become the privilege of a particular family, hence the question of handing over the command of leadership to someone else outside the party, whether they are young or experienced, does not arise.
