Nitin Nabin, 49, Takes Over as Youngest Ever BJP President; Tamil Nadu Governor Walks Out of Assembly Without Reading His Address; India, UAE Sign Letter of Intent for a Strategic Defence Partnership
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January 20, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
Nitin Nabin – a five-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator currently serving as a cabinet minister in Bihar and MLA for the Bankipur assembly seat in Patna – took charge as the BJP’s national president in Delhi on Tuesday. The previous party president J.P. Nadda had been given multiple extensions amid infighting in the saffron party’s regional units and reported disagreements with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The youngest person to assume this office, at 45, Nabin hailed his party as one where “it is not necessary to belong to any particular family to hold major positions and great responsibilities”, even though he is the son of the late four-time Bihar BJP legislator Nabin Kishore Sinha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who spoke for 49 minutes as opposed to Nabin’s 20 even though he called the latter his “boss” – celebrated the new president’s election as an edifice to democracy, but Nabin was elected unopposed as only his name was in the fray. Sravasti Dasgupta notes that Nabin’s appointment
“follows the Modi-Shah template of consolidating power in their hands, rendering other leaders voiceless, not nurturing second-rung leadership [and] elevating relatively unknown faces as chief ministers … while effectively sidelining established faces”.
The party president and the prime minister raised issues of alleged ‘demographic change’ and ‘urban Naxals’ at a time when four major states are bound for polls later this year.
Speaking of which, BJP spent Rs 3,335.36 crore for elections in 2024-25 or 3.75 times more than what Congress shelled out at Rs 896.22 crore, as per the analysis of the saffron party’s audit report. During 2025-25 when elections to Lok Sabha and eight states besides bypolls were held, the BJP managed an income of Rs 6,769.14 crore, which includes donations to the tune of Rs 6,124.85 crore and an expenditure of Rs 3,774.58 crore. In contrast, the Congress’ income was Rs 918.28 crore in 2024-25 while its total expenditure was Rs 1,111.94 crore.
For the fourth year in a row Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi walked out of the state assembly on Tuesday shortly after the state anthem was played. He elected not to read his customary address prepared by the DMK-led government, alleging that it exaggerated the state’s investment record under chief minister M.K. Stalin and “bypassed” a plethora of problems affecting the people. Later, ADMK, PMK and BJP MLAs too left the House, The Hindu notes.
India finds itself gingerly tiptoeing through yet another global mess as the United States and Europe drift towards a tariff confrontation over the Greenland dispute, a clash that could easily spill over into international trade. With Washington once again signalling its readiness to weaponise tariffs, trade experts warn that Indian exporters could become collateral damage if New Delhi misreads the moment. “It could result in a significant shift in the EU’s position on trade and WTO issues vis-à-vis the US,” said Abhijit Das, former head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) to The New Indian Express.
Speaking of which,
