New Delhi: Former Union minister JP Nadda was appointed as the national working president of the BJP at the party’s parliamentary board meeting on Monday evening.

Amit Shah, who has entered the Narendra Modi cabinet as the home minister, will continue to be BJP chief and will likely see the party through assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand elections later this year.

“The BJP won several elections under leadership of Amit Shah ji. But since PM appointed him home minister, Amit Shah ji himself said the responsibility of party president should be given to someone else. The BJP parliamentary board has selected JP Nadda as working president,” senior leader and defence minister Rajnath Singh said.

The @BJP4India has won several elections under the leadership of party president Shri @AmitShah. After the Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi appointed him the Home Minister, Amitji himself had said that the responsibility of party president should be given to someone else. 1/2 — Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2019

BJP Parliamentary board met today and it has selected Shri @JPNadda as the working president. He will remain the working president till the BJP’s membership drive& org. elections are over. Congratulations & best wishes to Naddaji for shouldering this new responsibility. 2/2 — Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2019

After Shah was nominated to the Union cabinet, it was widely expected that the BJP will have a new president. Similar procedure was followed in 2014 when Rajnath Singh demitted office as the BJP chief after being made Home Minister in the Modi government.

Shah replaced Rajnath as the organisational head, and completed his predecessor’s remaining term.

The organisational election process in the BJP starts later this year and culminates with the election of national president in January 2020. The amended BJP constitution stipulates for two full three-year term for the post of the party president.

Nadda, a Brahmin leader from Himachal Pradesh, enjoys the confidence of the party's top brass, is trusted by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh - the BJP’s ideological parent - and enjoys a clean reputation.

He was the health minister in the first Narendra Modi government.

That Nadda (58) maintains a low-profile went in his favour as the new working president will be expected to run the organisation in cohesion with the government and carry on with organisational agenda firmed up by Shah.

Nadda is a member of the BJP's parliamentary board, the party’s top decision-making body having its most important members, that gives him requisite seniority for the job as well.

Known as a master strategist, Nadda was given the charge of Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded elections in which the party bagged 62 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Educated at St. Xaviers School in Patna, Nadda thereafter did his BA from Patna College, Patna University and LLB from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He was three-time MLA in the Himachal assembly and came to the Upper House from Himachal Pradesh when he was appointed Union minister in 2014.

After being appointed working president, Nadda, in a series of tweets, said Modi's guidance has always been inspirational for him and under the prime minister's leadership the party has got huge support from people of the country. "I will try to strengthen the party as its worker...serving the party is like worship for me," Nadda said.

Thanking Shah, Nadda said that under his leadership the party touched new heights which is exemplary and in the same way he will also serve the party