By NIRENDRA DEV
BJP president Nitin Nabin’s new team retains several old faces while bringing back Smriti Irani and Ram Madhav, but the reshuffle offers little evidence of a major organisational reset.
New Delhi, August 17, 2026 — The BJP rejig is hardly a message for rebuilding the party for the next 10 years or so.
The big-picture message is that Amit Shah, Union Minister for Home Affairs and former BJP president, will keep running the show and Nitin Nabin may continue to be a lacklustre and rubber-stamp party president.
There is no mega surprise in “Team Nabin.” Stale headlines are everywhere about Ram Madhav’s return, but only as a vice president. Even as general secretaries, there are two old names — Biplab Kumar Deb and Smriti Irani.
The state headlines tell the tale: Smriti Irani, Ram Madhav make a comeback in Nitin Nabin’s Team 2026.
A notable omission from Nabin’s new team is Amit Malviya, the BJP IT handler and in-charge of social media operations.
He has been replaced by Deepak Mhaskey as national social media convenor, with Priti Gandhi, Shivanand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav appointed co-convenors.
Arun Singh is a big name dropped
The market spin could be that the new BJP team blends the old and the new and features women in key roles as the party prepares for elections in five states in the coming months.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal has been made treasurer. It is such a role — away from active politics and focused on bookkeeping — that he may not have to resign as Union Commerce Minister.
Goyal is still in the thick of trade talks with the US, and he may continue that assignment.
Biplab Kumar Deb, who was shunted out of Tripura for administrative and political liabilities in 2022 as the chief minister, has been made a general secretary. Where did Nitin Nabin “discover” the organisational talent in Biplab is a mystery.
Smriti Irani is the new general secretary and that’s like a consolation prize. She is a glib talker and had successfully unseated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in 2019; but BJP general secretaries need much more than that.
Ram Madhav’s return
In BJP’s scheme of things, vice presidents do not matter much in organisational matters.
Hence, Ram Madhav’s return as a national vice president would not be like the previous term as general secretary — when he practically ran the show in the Northeast and also largely in Jammu and Kashmir for a few months during the coalition period with the PDP.
Subsequently, his wings were clipped in Kashmir matters and his full-steam power had helped return of Neiphiu Rio as the Nagaland chief minister.
How much BJP has grown in Nagaland since then is a question better not asked.
The BJP office bearers have lost all powers and political dynamism to question the chief minister and his repeated faulty statements and policies.
The latest one is around Rio’s Independence Day claim that a panel has been formed by the Centre on Naga talks.
The mystery is nobody has heard of the panel and Rio may have to announce the composition of the same.
How much Ram Madhav’s return will help Rio as the 2028 polls in the state are not far away is again a question best left in the womb of time.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Baijayant Jay Panda, Rekha Verma and Tariq Mansoor have retained their positions as national vice presidents.
Old guard retained
Vinod Tawde and Sunil Bansal will continue as national general secretaries. B L Santhosh remains national general secretary (organisation) and is the official link between the party and the RSS.
Kerala-based leader Anil Antony has been retained as national secretary. Anil Baluni will continue in a key national media role.
A few prominent leaders from the previous team have also failed to find a place in the BJP’s new national line-up.
They include Dushyant Gautam, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, Sanjay Mayukh, Saroj Pandey, Tejasvi Surya and Laxmikant Bajpai.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author’s own.)
Inside BJP’s Organisational Reset: Irani and Madhav Return, Malviya Exits
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