Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has found himself a pivotal role in national politics, reports The Indian Express. Unanimously elected party president of the Janata Dal (United) by the national executive, Nitish Kumar will take over the reigns from Sharad Yadav, who led the party since 2006.
The new responsibility will enable Nitish to lead the JD(U) from the front and expand it by negotiating mergers with other parties on the one hand and reaching out to different sections of people all over the country on the other. He would hence engage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ideological and public issues on a regular basis. This will ensure that he remains in focus, both in the public and the media.Report in The Indian Express
If things go as planned, Nitish Kumar may well be in a position to rival Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
It is for the first time that Kumar, JD(U)‘s face in Bihar, has been elected president of the state-centric party.
Its two previous presidents, George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav were from outside Bihar, the state they virtually made their political home. Kumar’s name was proposed by Yadav and seconded by the party’s general secretary KC Tyagi, Javed Raza, among others, party leaders said following the meeting.
The Bihar Chief Minister, who made a spectacular return to power last year after his party was bruised and battered in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, told the executive about efforts being made to bring parties with similar ideologies together as he accepted the new responsibility, Tyagi said.
Having spearheaded the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance to a massive win over BJP-led NDA in the last year’s state assembly polls, his party is in talks with Ajit Singh-led RLD and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha for a merger.
(With PTI inputs)
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