*NU NATIONAL CONFERENCE & BEST CONFERENCE 2026: PROF. NAZARUDIN UMAR’S FACTION VICTORY AND AN ANALYSIS OF ITS CHANCES IN THE 35TH CONFERENCE*
By: Adlan Daie
Political analyst, Secretary General of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) of Indramayu Regency.
One of the important decisions resulting from the NU National Conference and National Conference at the Ploso Islamic Boarding School in Kediri (June 20-22, 2026) was the removal of the prohibition against “ministers” holding concurrent positions as Chairman of the PBNU (Article 51 of the NU Bylaws).
There is no need for “small talk” with complex NU-specific “fiqh” arguments or other legal arguments to interpret the removal of the word “minister” in the above draft of the Articles/Bylaws, except for the interpretation of the “victory” of the faction of Prof. Nazarudin Umar, Minister of Religious Affairs.
This is the first step in opening the way for Prof. Nazarudin Umar to enter the PBNU Chairmanship contest at the 35th NU Congress in August 2026 without having to resign from his current position as “Minister of Religious Affairs.”
Gus Muhaimin and Nusron Wahid, despite also holding “ministerial” positions, find it difficult to enter the PBNU Chairmanship contest, hindered by another article in the Articles/Bylaws, namely the requirement to be “inactive from the position of” party leadership one year before the Congress.
Gus Muhaimin is the General Chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), and Nusron Wahid is a Golkar Party official. These are the legal obstacles preventing them from taking office unless the article related to political parties is successfully repealed at the upcoming NU Congress.
In this author’s opinion, Professor Nazarudin Umar has a very strong chance of being elected as General Chairman of the PBNU at the 35th NU Congress. He has the potential to form a tactical alliance with Gus Muhaimin, Gus Ipul, and Nusron Wahid.
They are “the real factor,” the determining factors in the dynamics of the 35th NU Congress, bound by a political bond within the Prabowo administration—unifying their respective strengths in a shared power is certainly powerful.
Gus Ipul, as chairman of the Congress “committee,” certainly does not simply perform ad hoc and technical duties, but rather acts as a “system operator” within the dynamic succession cycle of the 35th NU Congress. He has proven his success at several NU Congresses.
Gus Muhaimin possesses a comprehensive political infrastructure across Indonesia through the National Awakening Party (PKB), the party he leads, to facilitate equal access to consolidation, bringing the NU and PKB social ecosystems under one roof to NU.
As Minister of Religious Affairs, Prof. Nazarudin Umar himself has a powerful relationship with the votes of the “NU Kemenag” faction, the ministry he leads. More than 150 (30%) of the Chairpersons of the NU and PCNU, who hold votes at the Congress, are held by civil servants from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Meanwhile, Nusron Wahid has been trained and tested in playing the rhythm of political consolidation and orchestration at several NU Congresses.
The combination of these four “real factors” will pave the way for Professor Nazarudin Umar to secure an absolute majority in the 35th NU Congress. This is what Jeffry Wonters calls a kind of “political oligarchy.”
In other words, this is what hinders Gus Yahya’s ability to be elected a second term as Chairman of the PBNU, despite his intensive regional consolidation efforts and sophisticated “digital team” backing him across various media platforms. Social issues.
Gus Yahya’s team’s efforts to frame a systemic narrative as a symbol of “resistance” against the power relations of Professor Nazarudin Umar’s faction, relying on NU’s cultural anchor, the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri, have struggled to find momentum.
This is because Gus Yahya is not an NU figure with a track record of critical resistance to political regimes, as Gus Dur experienced against the Soeharto regime.
Therefore, imagining a “resistance” like Gus Dur’s at the 1994 Cipasung Congress is difficult to imagine, and even impossible to cultivate a spiritual atmosphere.
The only remaining chance for Gus Yahya to be re-elected is if he succeeds in breaking the alliance of the four “real factors” mentioned above, especially since Gus Muhaimin, Gus Ipul, and Nusron Wahid are politicians who find it difficult to reconcile their political calculations.
Unfortunately, Gus Yahya’s “inner circle” is largely composed of academics, lacking in experience and skills. political negotiations, except for sophisticatedly enhancing themselves with a pile of narratives on social media.
Will the 35th NU Congress break the historical tradition of the incumbent PBNU Chairman always being elected twice, or even three times, since the time of KH. Idham Kholid, Gus Dur, KH. Hasyim Muzadi, and KH. Said Aqil Siradj?
Could a “third axis” emerge between the two extremes, and what will NU’s critical role as an Islamic organization, a force in civil society, be when the PBNU Chairman holds a cabinet position under the power relations of the political regime?
Let us await the dynamics until the culmination of the 35th NU Congress in August 2026, with all its possibilities and potential surprises.
The NU Congress, citing the view of Mitsuo Nakamura, the first foreign researcher to study NU from 1979 to 1981, is often difficult to predict in terms of its ending and outcome.
Regards.
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