Patna: Nitish Kumar is back as the Janata Dal (United) president replacing Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh. According to the party leaders, Singh requested Nitish to take over the mantle ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as he wants to focus on the Munger parliamentary seat.
The change of guard took place at the two-day national executive and national council meeting of the JDU in New Delhi. “Lallan ji said that he had become the party chief at the order of Nitish ji. He requested that he would be busier in his Lok Sabha constituency and requested the chief minister to take over as the party president which the latter accepted,” Bihar finance minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said.
Insiders in the party revealed that the JDU with Nitish Kumar at the helm of his party’s affairs would work with more vigour and coherence to strengthen the campaign of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
The JDU at the two-day meeting deliberated on the caste survey; increasing job quota for the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to 65%; employing over 1.25 school teachers; and according ‘government servant’ status to 4,40,000 contract teachers in Bihar. The party focused on the achievements of the Nitish government and dropped hints to pit the ‘Bihar model’, built on real issues, as part of the INDIA bloc campaign against BJP’s Hindutva.
Party cadres are in a jubilant mood over Nitish’s comeback as the president. They ruled out any possibility of factionalism surfacing in the party with Nitish at the helm, underlining that he is an acceptable leader for everyone in the party. Lallan who accompanied Nitish in the car to the JDU office ahead of demitting his position too said, “The JDU was united, is united, and will remain united.” He hit out at the media for “playing into the hands of the BJP and building a false narrative around the JDU”.
The George Fernandes-led Samata Party merged into the Janata Dal of Sharad Yadav-led faction in 2003 and became the Janata Dal (United) of which Sharad was the founding president. Nitish took over as its president in 2016 and continued till he paved the way for Ram Chandra Prasad (RCP) Singh in 2020. Lallan Singh replaced RCP who was axed from the party in 2021.
Lallan’s decision to quit his position in favour of Nitish can also be seen in the light of the electoral reality in his Lok Sabha constituency. The Munger Lok Sabha seat is known for the predominance of the Yadavs, Kurmis, Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), and minorities. The baton in the hands of Nitish – a benefactor of the EBCs and Mahadalits – is likely to smoothen the rough edges in the relationship of various caste groups and unite them behind Lallan, an upper caste Bhumihar in the 2024 polls. Moreover, it could weaken the BJP’s efforts to rope in the non-Yadav EBCs who are crucial for the Munger seat.
Wild speculations
Reports about Lallan’s exit as the party chief ahead of the JDU’s meet set in motion wild speculations with a section of the media predicting that Nitish might be replacing Lallan to “facilitate” his “re-entry” into the NDA. Several channels said that Lallan had got “close to the Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav” to the discomfiture of Nitish.
The second rung of BJP leaders asserted that Nitish was “peeved” at the INDIA bloc not making him convenor and he was looking for “ways” to rejoin the NDA. To the chagrin of the JDU leadership, such rumours have been doing the rounds for over a week despite all the top party leaders – Nitish Kumar, K. C. Tyagi, Lallan Singh, and Vijay Kumar Choudhary – repeatedly denying these rumours and demonstrating the JDU’s “unwavering” commitment to strengthening the INDIA’s campaign against the BJP.
Nitish, who played a pivotal role in uniting various non-BJP leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal and Delhi chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvin Kejriwal respectively, under the umbrella of INDIA, clarified on December 25 that he does not have any personal ambition and only wanted all the parties to put up a united fight against the BJP.
“I have been saying from the very beginning that I don’t want any post for myself. What I want is the unity of the INDIA bloc and sharing of seats among them as soon as possible,” Nitish said after paying tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary on December 25.
Still, a section of channels reported the “stories” of Nitish’s “annoyance” at the INDIA parties for not making him a convenor; he was feeling “insulted” and was looking for a “way out”.
Nitish Kumar and other Janata Dal (United) leaders at the party’s national executive meeting in Delhi. Photo: X (Twitter)/@LalanSingh_1
Dubious feedback
Social media operatives allegedly owing allegiance to the BJP’s IT cells flooded the internet with the news of “turmoil” in the JDU and “sirphutaual (quarrel)” in the INDIA bloc linking it with the “crisis” in the JDU. Koiri leader Upendra Kushwaha who is with the BJP said, “I can try for Nitish ji’s honourable entry into the NDA if he disassociated himself from Lalu Prasad Yadav”.
Sources in the ruling Mahagathbandhan, comprising RJD, JDU, Congress, and the Left parties, revealed that the talks of sharing the Lok Sabha seats among them in Bihar were in the final stages. But reacting to the developments in the JDU on Friday, several BJP leaders, including Union ministers Ashwini Choubey and Giriraj Singh, said, “The BJP’s doors for Nitish Kumar were shut. His days as the CM are numbered.”
However, a confidant of Nitish reacted as such, “But has Nitish knocked at the BJP’s door? The BJP is resorting to dubious tricks to damage Nitish ji’s image.”
Realistically, it is the BJP that is in troubled waters in Bihar after Nitish deserted it in August 2022 and joined the Mahagathbandhan. It is an electorally proven reality that the RJD enjoys impregnable hold on the Yadavs and Muslims who together constitute over 31% of the voters, and Nitish enjoys the same over the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) who are 36.01% of the state’s population, according to the Bihar caste survey report. Nitish has increased his hold over this population by raising their reservation in government jobs from 18% to 25%.
It’s hard for the BJP to make inroads into the OBC and EBC’s social base empowered and nursed well, earlier by Lalu Prasad Yadav and now Nitish Kumar. The BJP is, apparently playing all the tricks to foment differences in Bihar’s Mahagathbandhan in a bid to weaken the INDIA bloc.
