Jagat Prakash Nadda Biography

About Jagat Prakash Nadda

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary and a Rajya Sabha MP from Himachal Pradesh, Jagat Prakash Nadda (JP Nadda) is known as a master strategist in his party. Other than Amit Shah, he was also measured as one of the strongest candidates for the post of BJP President. Just like Amit Shah, he is also considered as a quintessential organisational man and has been instrumental in several major decisions of the party. Nadda has recently been included in the Union Cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Health Minister replacing Dr Harsh Vardhan.



Early Life of Jagat Prakash Nadda

Born in Patna on 2nd December, 1960, Nadda entered politics in the year 1975 when he joined the then ongoing Sampurna Kranti (total revolution) movement started by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement against the autocratic rule of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Nadda later joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party, while he was studying in Patna University and entered student politics. His father NL Nadda was Vice Chancellor of Patna University.

On a ticket of the ABVP, he won election as Secretary, Patna university students union in 1977. Simultaneously, he also got actively involved in the day-to-day workings of ABVP and worked on several positions. After graduating from the Patna University, Nadda completed his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the Himachal University. Nadda has been a sports enthusiast also and during his school days, he got a chance to represent Bihar in a swimming championship held at Delhi.

 He is married to Dr Mallika Nadda, who is daughter of Lok Sabha MP from Jabalpur (in Madhya Pradesh), Jayshree Banerjee. Mallika is a professor of history at the Himachal Pradesh University. She has also been a member of ABVP, the student wing of BJP. From 1988 to 1999, she was also its national general secretary.



Political Career of Jagat Prakash Nadda

In 1987, Nadda had to face a 45-day detention for organising an anti-government campaign against the ruling Congress Party by forming a Rashtriya Sangharsh Morcha.

 During the Lok Sabha Polls held in the year 1989, he was assigned a major responsibility as election in-charge of the BJP’s youth wing when he was just 29 years old. Moving ahead, just three years later in 1991, he was made National President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha at the young age of 31 years.

 Later, he fought Assembly elections from his home state Himachal Pradesh and won three times. He has been a Cabinet Minister in the Himachal Pradesh for three terms – from 1993 to1998, 1998 to 2003 and then during 2007-2012 and handled ministries such as Forest, Environment, Science and Technology. As part of his noted achievements, Nadda has been known as a minister who effectively established forest police stations in the state to curb forest crimes. He has also been credited for boosting the green cover in Shimla and for the purpose he remains engaged in launching several tree plantation drives in the state.

J P Nadda has also visited several countries including Costa Rica, Greece, Turkey, UK, Canada, etc as part of different delegations representing India.

 In 2012 he got elected to the Rajya Sabha. He has also been a member of the Committees on Transport, Tourism and Culture.
 WBSKJ10.11.2014