BJP Announces "Team 2029" Under Nitin Nabin

NEW DELHI — The Bharatiya Janata Party unveiled its first full organisational team under national president Nitin Nabin on Monday, announcing a comprehensive list of office-bearers, 13 national vice presidents, eight general secretaries, 16 national secretaries, and a range of other positions, in what party sources have described as "Team 2029," laying the structural foundation for the next general election campaign.

The Bharatiya Janata Party announced its new national team under party president Nitin Nabin on Monday, unveiling a list of key organisational appointments. The new team includes 13 national vice presidents and eight general secretaries, along with 16 national secretaries and other office-bearers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the newly appointed national office-bearers of the BJP, saying the new team brings together organisational experience, energy and grassroots connect. In a post on X, Modi extended his best wishes to the leaders assigned key organisational responsibilities and expressed confidence that they would contribute to strengthening the party and advancing its focus on public service.

High-level sources indicate that once the party's new lineup is locked in, a Union Cabinet reshuffle is likely to follow.

The Vice Presidents: Raje, Madhav, Purandeshwari, Panda Lead the List

The 13 national vice presidents represent one of the most closely watched elements of the reshuffle, given that the vice-presidential list signals the party's assessment of its regional power bases and the leaders it wants to keep institutionally central.

The BJP has appointed 13 national vice presidents. They include Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Tirath Singh Rawat, Ram Madhav, Baijayant Jay Panda, D Purandeshwari, Rekha Verma, Varshaben Narendrabhai Doshi, Bharti Pravin Pawar, Manpreet Singh Badal, Lal Singh Arya, M Nagaraja, Tariq Mansoor and Madhuchandra Kar.

Vasundhara Raje Scindia's return to a formal national vice-presidential role is among the most significant individual appointments. The three-time Rajasthan Chief Minister had stepped back from active national party responsibility in the period preceding the 2023 Rajasthan assembly elections, amid reported friction with the then-party leadership over candidate selection. Her inclusion in the vice-presidential list under Nabin signals a restoration of her national standing and could have implications for Rajasthan's political dynamics ahead of the 2028 assembly elections.

Ram Madhav, a former RSS pracharak who has served as BJP General Secretary, was associated with managing the party's Northeast and Kashmir strategy, and has been a public intellectual figure within the organisation returns to a formal national role as vice president, a position commensurate with his profile and reach.

D Purandeshwari, representing Andhra Pradesh, and Baijayant Jay Panda, the media-facing national vice president who has been one of the party's most prominent English-language spokespersons, are retained in their vice-presidential capacities. Tariq Mansoor's inclusion as one of 13 vice presidents reflects the party's continued effort to maintain visible Muslim representation in its national organisational structure.

The General Secretaries: Smriti Irani Makes a Comeback

Former Union Minister Smriti Irani, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Sunil Bansal, Vinod Tawde and Satish Poonia are among the eight leaders appointed as national general secretaries. Gajendra Patel, Harish Dwivedi and Sanjay Bhatia have also been named national general secretaries.

Smriti Irani's appointment as a national general secretary is one of the most discussed elements of the reshuffle. Irani lost her Amethi parliamentary seat to Congress's Kishori Lal Sharma in the 2024 general elections, ending a tenure in which she had defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019. Following that defeat, she stepped back from Cabinet and public prominence. Her assignment as a national general secretary under Nabin represents a formal organisational rehabilitation, giving her a significant party role that does not require a parliamentary seat and that leverages her organisational ability, media presence, and political aggression.

Sunil Bansal, who has been widely credited as the organisational architect behind BJP's election victories in Uttar Pradesh and several other states, and Vinod Tawde, who has been a key Maharashtra-facing figure, are retained as general secretaries, a continuity signal from Nabin that operational excellence in state management remains a priority.

B.L. Santhosh will continue as National General Secretary (Organisation), while Shivprakash and Saudan Singh have been appointed National Joint General Secretaries (Organisation). B.L. Santhosh's retention is particularly significant, as National General Secretary (Organisation), he is the individual who oversees the party's booth-level structure, its shakha network coordination with the RSS, and its candidate selection inputs. Continuity in that role provides stability to the party's foundational organisational machinery.

Piyush Goyal as Treasurer, Tarun Chugh as Central Office In-Charge

Piyush Goyal has been appointed national treasurer, while Tarun Chugh will serve as central office in-charge. Rajesh Mangal will be the National Joint Treasurer. Arun Singh has been named National General Secretary and Office In-charge.

Piyush Goyal's appointment as national treasurer is a significant institutional role, the party treasurer manages BJP's financial operations, its fund-raising apparatus, and its compliance with Election Commission financial disclosure requirements. Goyal brings both corporate network credibility and government experience to the position, having served as Union Minister for Commerce and Industry.

The National Secretaries: Youth, Regions, and Party Converts

The party has named 16 national secretaries: Kavita Patidar, K Surendran, Bhola Singh, Pradip Varma, Jagdish Ishwarbhai Patel, Sandeep Pathak, Phangnon Konyak, Sangeeta Yadav, Anil Antony, M Venkateshan, Manoj Tigga, Siddharth Shambhu, Swadesh Singh, Mriganka Deo Barman, Rohan Gupta and Jai Prakash.

Two appointments in the secretaries' list carry particular narrative weight. Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister A K Antony, had joined the BJP in 2023 after leaving the Congress. Former Kerala BJP president K Surendran previously served as the Kerala BJP president. Anil Antony's inclusion in the national secretary list, coming from a family that is among the most iconic in Congress history, is a continuing demonstration of the BJP's recruitment of leaders from across the political spectrum and a symbolic statement for Kerala, where the party continues to work toward a breakthrough.

The secretaries' list also includes Phangnon Konyak, the Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland and the first woman from the Northeast to become a Rajya Sabha deputy chairman, reflecting the party's continued attention to Northeast India as an organisational priority.

The Strategic Logic: "Team 2029" and the Road Ahead

Following the takeover of the new party president Nitin Nabin, this strategic overhaul aims to balance seasoned experience with fresh perspective by integrating top ministers alongside a significant influx of young and women leaders, laying the groundwork for the road to 2029.

Younger leaders are heavily being discussed in political circles to bolster youth outreach, a strategic push following recent student-led protests.

The organisational exercise takes place against a specific electoral backdrop. Several significant state assembly elections are due before the 2029 general election, including Bihar, Delhi (which BJP won in 2025), and the southern states where the party continues to build. The national team announced on Monday will be responsible for managing the party's state-level campaigns in each of those contests, while also beginning the preparatory work for 2029.

Nabin formally took charge as BJP national president on January 20, 2026. His announcement of the full team seven months after taking charge, timed to arrive two days after India's 80th Independence Day, when national sentiment is at its highest pitch, is itself a deliberate piece of political calendaring.

The Prime Minister's congratulations came shortly after BJP national president Nitin Nabin announced a major reshuffle of the party's organisational structure, bringing several prominent leaders into key positions.