The JD(U) rank and file in Bihar on Friday expressed elation upon Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, their de facto leader, assuming charge as the national president of the party.
As news of the development at the party’s national executive meeting in Delhi reached the state headquarters here, workers erupted into celebration and smeared ‘gulaal’ (dry colours) on each other to express their delight.
”The welcome development comes at a crucial time when we are engaged in a fight against the emergency-like situation under the BJP rule at the Centre,” JD(U) state unit chief Umesh Singh Kushwaha told reporters.
Kumar took over from Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’, who expressed his wish to give up the national president’s post that he had been holding since March 2021, and moved a proposal that the Bihar CM take over, which was unanimously accepted.
The development capped days of furious speculations, during which the BJP and its allies claimed that Kumar had grown suspicious of Lalan because of the latter’s apparent proximity to RJD president Lalu Prasad, the father of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
Kumar was elected JD(U) president with the party projecting him as the ”hope of backwards, extremely backwards, minorities and unemployed youth”.
He was characteristically sober in his remarks after taking over the mantle, but accused the BJP of ”misleading” people and not delivering on its promises, including providing employment.
Reacting to the news about Kumar, former Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi claimed that ”there are two factions in that party. One feels quitting the NDA last year was a mistake. The other, led by Lalan, is pro-Lalu. Had Lalan not been removed, he would have merged JD(U) with RJD”.
”The game is not yet over. Disintegration of the JD(U) is a foregone conclusion. The RJD is growing impatient to see Tejashwi as the CM. Its cadre cannot wait till 2025, when assembly polls are due,” Modi added.
However, talking to reporters here, Yadav asserted there was no trust deficit between him and his boss, and alleged that the BJP was ”scared” of taking on the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in the Lok Sabha polls.
”The BJP cannot forget its loss in the 2015 assembly polls when the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ bagged 170-plus seats in the 243-strong House. In 2024, it will be for the first time for Lalu and Nitish to be contesting a Lok Sabha poll together. The BJP is, therefore, jittery and hoping to make things easier for itself by spreading rumours,” the young RJD leader said.
“In the JD(U), Nitish Kumar has always been the supreme leader. He has held the top party post in the past. As party president, he will be more directly involved in steering the INDIA coalition towards victory,” Yadav said.
At the JD(U) office, party workers expressed the view it was high time Lalan gave up the top post, but clarified that it does not, however, have anything to do with alleged lack of loyalty towards Nitish Kumar.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a party functionary said, ”Lalan babu had played an important role in the JD(U) at a crucial juncture. But of late, he had become too preoccupied with retaining his own Lok Sabha seat of Munger”.
The party functionary cited a letter Lalan wrote to the state’s Minister for Water Resources Sanjay Kumar Jha, who is also a national general secretary of JD(U), about problems being faced in some riverine areas in his constituency.
”Lalan ji meets Jha almost daily, at the party office or at the CM’s residence. Yet he chose to put his complaint in writing. As if this was not enough, he shared the letter on X. It may have been a smart move as an MP, but unbecoming of a party president,” said the JD(U) functionary.
Kumar had last become the party president in 2016, when he replaced veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav, who found himself ousted from the JD(U) about a year later.
He held the post till the end of 2020 when he stepped down and got bureaucrat-turned-politician RCP Singh elected as the new national president.
Singh’s tenure lasted for barely seven months, till July 2021, when he had to step down following induction in the Union cabinet, making way for the elevation of Lalan, who has been a close associate of Kumar for several decades.
Lalan had previously headed the party’s state unit and also served in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.
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