Nitish Kumar becomes JD (U) president again; party says BJP is not enemy

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, December 29: The Janata Dal (United) on Friday elected Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as party president. Kumar has taken the charge of the party after a gap of three years. The national council of the JD (U) after two-day long meeting elected Kumar as the party president.

The development has come in the backdrop of intense speculations doing the rounds in Bihar over the next course of action by the state chief minister who in his political career has gained the notoriety of making extreme decisions on the eve of major elections. The JD (U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh resigned from the post of the president in Friday morning.

Singh was closeted with the Bihar chief minister for an hour long close door meeting on Thursday in the national capital ahead of the commencement of the national council meeting. Senior JD (U) leader K C Tyagi told reporters that the party has authorized Kumar to speak to the political allies for the seat adjustments for the Lok Sabha elections.

Tyagi refuted the speculations that Kumar may join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Yet, Tyagi stated that there is no enmity in politics. He said, “The BJP is not an enemy.” He was responding to a pointed question of reporters who asked if the BJP for the JD (U) was an enemy.

Grapevine in the JD (U) suggested that Singh was seen friendly with the deputy chief minister of Bihar and the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav. It has also been suggested in the party circles that Yadav has been staying away from the chief minister. Yadav had also skipped the Bihar Investment Summit.

Ahead of the national council meeting of the JD (U), the Bihar chief minister had paid homage to late Arun Jaitely with whom Kumar had held cordial relations. Jaitely for several years had also been the BJP in-charge for Bihar. Jaitely is credited to have worked out the BJP and the JD (U) alliance in the past.

The JD (U) had called the national council meeting soon after the meeting of the Opposition alliance, Indian National Developmental and Inclusive Alliance, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had proposed the name of Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge for the prime ministerial face of the group. Kumar was apparently miffed at the proposal of Kharge’s name in the meeting of the Opposition alliance. Subscribe: youtube.com/@TheRaisinaHills Follow: Twitter.com/theraisinahills

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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