The man who has thrived under 3 BJP Presidents - Amit Shah, JP Nadda & now Nitin Nabin

Anil Baluni is set to continue as the BJP’s National Media Coordinator, retaining a role he has handled for 12 years as the party reshuffles its national organisation under president Nitin Nabin.

Baluni will be assisted by Ashish Usha Agarwal, Pradeep Bhandari and Siddharth Yadav in the media team. His continuation gives the BJP continuity in a media function he has handled since 2017.

Baluni has been associated with the BJP’s national media operations since 2017, when then party president Amit Shah appointed him head of the party’s media department. Before taking on the national role, Baluni had served as a national spokesperson and as a spokesperson for the Uttarakhand BJP. Contemporary reports described him as a soft-spoken but assertive communicator with an understanding of the media ecosystem.

Thanking Nabin and the party’s senior leadership for reposing their trust in him, Baluni wrote in a social media post, “I am grateful to the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shri Nitin Nabin Ji, for entrusting me with the important responsibility of National Media Coordinator in his National Team. I heartily thank the Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah Ji and the entire senior leadership, who have reposed their trust in me by entrusting me with this responsibility.”

His background in journalism has been an important part of that profile. Baluni worked as a journalist in Delhi before moving into active politics. His early political association with the BJP came through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, following which he worked with veteran BJP leader Sunder Singh Bhandari as an officer on special duty.

The combination of journalism and political experience has remained central to Baluni’s role within the BJP. Over the years, he has been a regular face of the party in interactions with the press, while also handling its broader media coordination. His experience in the newsroom has given him familiarity with both sides of the media interaction, from understanding the demands of news organisations to representing the party’s position.

In 2020, Baluni was retained as national media in-charge by BJP president JP Nadda and was additionally appointed the party’s chief spokesperson. The move expanded his role as one of the party’s principal public voices.

His political career has developed alongside his communication responsibilities. Baluni entered the Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand in 2018 and served in the Upper House until 2024. He subsequently contested his first Lok Sabha election from Garhwal and won the seat, defeating Congress candidate Ganesh Godiyal by 1,63,503 votes.

His 2024 campaign also took him from the BJP headquarters in Delhi to the terrain of Garhwal. During the campaign, he said he was travelling around 300 km a day across the constituency. His messaging focused on development, tourism, employment and curbing migration from the hills.

Over the years, Baluni has also used writing as an extension of his communication work. His bylines have covered issues including heritage, taxation, the economy, government programmes and development, giving him another platform beyond television debates and media interactions. His Indian Express archive includes columns published as recently as June 2026.

His current parliamentary role also keeps him close to the communications sector. Baluni is a member of the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology in the 18th Lok Sabha, adding a parliamentary dimension to his long association with media and communication. Parliamentary records list him among the committee’s Lok Sabha members, while the committee has continued to examine issues relating to the communications sector.

The latest organisational changes therefore mark continuity for Baluni in a function he has been closely associated with for nearly a decade. His career has spanned journalism, party communication, parliamentary politics and electoral campaigning.

The wider BJP reshuffle under Nitin Nabin includes several prominent names. Vasundhara Raje, Ram Madhav and Baijayant Panda have been appointed national vice-presidents, while Smriti Irani has been named national general secretary and Piyush Goyal national treasurer. BL Santhosh continues as national general secretary (organisation), while Shivprakash and Saudan Singh have been named national joint general secretaries (organisation).

For Baluni, the appointment marks the continuation of a media role he has built over several years, even as his own political career has expanded from the party’s media apparatus to the Rajya Sabha and, subsequently, the Lok Sabha.

Before Baluni took charge, the BJP’s national media function was closely associated with Shrikant Sharma, who had spent several years working on the party’s media outreach. BJP president Nitin Gadkari appointed Sharma as the party’s national media convenor in 2010, after he had served as joint media convenor. By 2013, he was described as the party’s media cell convenor responsible for coordinating between BJP spokespersons and journalists and putting across the party’s position.

Sharma continued to handle the media brief under Amit Shah and was again assigned responsibility for the party’s media cell in 2015, when the BJP also created a separate media-relations department to strengthen its outreach to journalists and media organisations. He went on to contest the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election from Mathura and was inducted into the Yogi Adityanath government as Energy Minister. In March 2017, Amit Shah appointed Baluni to head the BJP’s media department, replacing Sharma.