With Nitin Nabin at the top, is the BJP getting younger? Here’s what the ages of Union Council, CMs show

In recent years, many among the BJP’s choice for Chief Ministers and Cabinet posts are below 55, with some such as Bhajanlal Sharma of Rajasthan, Rekha Gupta of Delhi and Mohan Yadav of Madhya Pradesh, literally pulled out of the back rows to the front.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi expects a lot of hard work and leg work from those he offers high positions. Younger leaders have an advantage here, as they can do the running around more comfortably. Someone who has to pop a tablet every few hours is unlikely to fit the bill,” said a BJP leader not wishing to be named.

Only 5 BJP CMs above 55

An analysis of the BJP’s current Chief Ministers in 14 states shows that only five of them — Tripura’s Manik Saha (70), Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel (60), Chhattisgarh’s Vishnu Deo Sai (59), Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav (58) and Rajasthan’s Sharma (56) — were above the age of 55 at the time of their swearing-in. The other nine CMs were under 55 when they last took oath — Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu was 44 years old, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma was 52, Delhi’s Gupta 50, Goa’s Pramod Sawant 48, Haryana’s Nayab Singh Saini 54, Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis 54, Odisha’s Mohan Majhi 52, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath 49 and Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami 46. The average age of BJP’s Chief Ministers at the time of their swearing-in in the past four years was 54 years.

The party has, however, struck a balance while appointing party chiefs, many of whom are above 55. An analysis by The Indian Express shows that 20 state chiefs were above 55 years and 14 were under 55 years when they were elected to the post (see chart). The average age of BJP state presidents, when their names were announced to the post, was 58, higher than the average age of CMs. Most of the current state presidents were announced during organisational elections held over the past one year.

A BJP leader who spoke on condition of anonymity explained this phenomenon of young CMs and older party chiefs, saying, “The party is not going for an outright shift to the young generation, but believes in mixing age groups at different positions, which provides the right blend of youth and experience.”

Except for Assam and Maharashtra, in other BJP-ruled states, the party struck a balance between young blood and experience by appointing state presidents older than the Chief Minister. In a recent example, while UP Chief Minister Adityanath was 49 when he was sworn in for a second consecutive term in March 2022, the newly appointed UP state BJP chief, Union Minister Pankaj Chaudhary, is 61. Outgoing state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary was 54 years old when he took charge in 2022.

Members of Union Council of Ministers who were under 55

Assam is an exception, where Dilip Saikia was 51 when appointed state president in January 2025, while Sarma was 52 when the BJP decided his name for the Chief Ministerial post after the 2021 Assembly polls. Sarma is currently 56.

Likewise, Maharashtra has a young team. CM Fadnavis was 54 at the time of his swearing-in in December 2024, and the party appointed 54-year-old Maratha face Ravindra Chavan as its state president in July 2025.

This calibrated generational push, as opposed to a wholesale youth push, is evident in the state Cabinets (see box).

Delhi stands out with the youngest cabinet, averaging 50 years, and only one minister (Ashish Sood at 58) above 55 at the time of swearing-in.

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Uttarakhand also have youthful Cabinets, with a majority of ministers under 55, even as older leaders continue to occupy senior positions within the Cabinet. States such as Odisha similarly reflect a tilt towards younger leadership at the top, without fully displacing older ministers.

In contrast, larger and politically complex states show a more cautious approach. Cabinets in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh remain evenly split or tilted towards older ministers, even when the Chief Minister is under 55, while Goa and Haryana lean older overall despite relatively younger CMs.

The BJP has 15 Deputy CMs in nine NDA-ruled states and their average age was 57 when they took oath — higher than the average age (54) of the party’s chief ministers.

In Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and UP, the BJP’s Deputy CMs were older than their CMs.

An analysis of the Modi-led Union Council of Ministers from June 2024, when the government was sworn in, shows that the average age of the BJP’s Union ministers, including Modi, was 59.

(Top row, left to right) Anil Kumar Tiwari, PVN Madhav, Kaling Moyong, Dilip Saikia, Damodar Gajanan Naik
(Bottom row, left to right) Vijayendra Yediyurappa, Jagdishbhai Vishvakarma, Virendra Sachdeva

Among the BJP’s members in the Union Cabinet, 21 were above 55 years of age and only five were under 55 — Minister of State (Independent Charge) Rao Inderjit Singh was the oldest at 74 and Prime Minister Modi followed at 73; the youngest was Raksha Nikhil Khadse, 37. Among the 35 MoS from the BJP, 21 were above 55 years in age,  while just 14 were under 55 years.

The Churn

Party sources said while the BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani too chose younger leaders for top posts — Shivraj Singh Chouhan, for instance, was only 46 when he took over as CM of Madhya Pradesh about two decades ago — under PM Modi, it is more a calculated, sustained churn.

By the start of Modi’s second term in 2019, none of the prominent faces of the party from a decade earlier — Advani, M M Joshi, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar — were around (while Kumar passed away in 2018, Jaitley and Swaraj breathed their last in 2019). However, Rajnath Singh continues to buck that trend.

The BJP’s state satraps — Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh and BS Yeddurappa in Karnataka — were around for another five years, but by the time of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, they too were all out of their states, with Chouhan getting shifted to the capital as Union minister after the polls.

Party sources say that the current phase of the chop-and-churn — those 55 or below being picked for key positions — is meant to send out a signal: that the BJP under Modi will rotate faces without allowing power bases to harden.

What’s behind the churn

Party sources say the changes, particularly Nabin’s selection, have the stamp of PM Modi’s authority. With the choice, they say, Modi has sent out a strong signal: that he is the ultimate authority when it comes to deciding who will hold what position, and that pulls and pressures from lobbies won’t work. Party sources say PM Modi would want an independent face to come up and Nabin, who is not an RSS pick or aligned to any one senior leader, fits the bill.

A BJP leader said unpredictable changes such as these are meant to keep party leaders on their toes. Chouhan, for instance, was shifted to the Centre even after the BJP swept the state in 2023 under him. In contrast, Dhami became Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in 2021 at the age of 45 despite losing the Assembly election from Khatima. He was re-elected in a 2022 by-election from Champawat Assembly constituency in the state.

The message is also that past stature or popularity in the media is no criterion for elevation.

“Earlier, leaders tried to be media friendly as they thought that their popularity would help them rise within the ranks. But now, that popularity can indeed become the reason for stagnation. What matters now is being in the good books of the leadership,” says a BJP leader.

But that, the leader admits, makes the BJP a ‘high command party’, much like the Congress.

While the combination of PM Modi and master strategist Amit Shah has turned the BJP into a well-oiled election machine, the absence of a strong second-rung leadership has been worrying the BJP cadre in its bastions.

(Top row, left to right) Pema Khandu, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Pramod Sawant, Nayab Singh Saini, Yogi Adityanath
(Bottom row, left to right) Devendra Fadnavis, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rekha Gupta, Mohan Charan Majhi

In informal conversations, BJP leaders often question the phasing out of a robust second rung, and fear this will eventually tell on the party. They often talk fondly of how the previous leadership duo of Vajpayee-Advani nurtured a strong second-rung of leaders, including Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Swaraj, Naidu, Ananth Kumar and Uma Bharti, among others, at a time when the Congress as well as regional parties were ridden with dynastic consolidation.

Sources say that Nabin’s appointment also suggests that decision-making now rests overwhelmingly within the party and PMO, rather than with the RSS’s traditional consultative mechanisms. The shift, party insiders point out, began under Modi-Shah, and that even Nadda was not a direct RSS pick.

But by picking Nabin, they say, the BJP leadership has ticked one of the boxes for the Sangh, which was keen to have a young leader between the ages of 45 and 55 at the top. “He has a clean image and does not belong to any particular camp or a dominant caste (Nabin belongs to Kayastha community). This will make him acceptable to the Sangh and party leaders across the castes and classes,” says a senior leader.

The real test

The test of the BJP’s strategy of picking virtual unknowns for top jobs will lie in how well these candidates establish themselves, both within the party organisation and with the central leadership.

So far, party leaders admit, many of the surprise choices for top jobs in the state governments have not “risen to the expectations of the cadres”.

“Other than Yogiji (in Uttar Pradesh), Sarma (in Assam) and Fadnavis (in Maharashtra), the others haven’t been able to build a political capital of their own in their states. Dhami has managed to establish his leadership in the party. In the other states, if we go to elections, it will still be with Modiji’s face,” admits a senior party functionary.

Which is why, they say, the “real picture” behind Nabin’s rise will be clear only after he announces the new organisation. While a section of BJP leaders expect an entirely young team of office-bearers to complement the generational shift, the BJP will be wise not to head in that direction — that only a mix of young and experienced leaders will be able to take the party forward.

“This is a party that governs a population of 140 crore. You cannot have an entirely fresh team; you need experienced hands, you need a mixed bag,” says a senior party leader.

And then, if the new president retains the existing team, it won’t be much of a shift. “Nabin will be under the shadow of the top leadership till such time he is able to make a mark on his own — and that, in the present system of our party, is a slow process,” he says.