A national executive meeting of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) held in Delhi on Saturday decided to appoint Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha as the party’s working president. A proposal to this effect was made by JD-U national president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, which was accepted by all. Kumar would continue at the top party post.
Jha’s appointment has been made keeping in mind the 2025 Bihar assembly polls. He will assist Kumar, under whom the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will contest the polls.
Jha, who took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP in April this year, is said to be close to Kumar and he had played a crucial role in JD-U’s return to the NDA. His appointment indicates that the party wants to continue having better co-ordination with its alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“His (Jha) appointment will help party expand its base pan-India,” said Bihar minister Ashok Chowdhary.
All the party MPs and ministers, apart from executive members, general secretaries, secretaries and state presidents, were present at the national executive meeting. A party leader said various topics, including an analysis of the recently concluded Lok Sabha election and strategies for the assembly elections scheduled for 2025, were discussed during the meeting.
The meeting also passed a resolution and congratulated Kumar for the party’s good performance in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 and reposed faith in him. Its political resolution asserted the role the party played in getting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third term. The JD (U) contested 16 seats and won 12 in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}The meeting also passed a resolution and congratulated Kumar for the party’s good performance in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 and reposed faith in him. Its political resolution asserted the role the party played in getting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third term. The JD (U) contested 16 seats and won 12 in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}The national executive also decided to contest Jharkhand assembly polls to be held later this year. Besides, the party also reiterated its demand for a special category status to Bihar.
The meeting came at a time when there is a demand from a section of BJP leaders in Bihar that the party should field its own chief ministerial candidate in the next assembly elections, even as JD-U and BJP leaders have dismissed claims of a possible mistrust between the two parties.
In the previous national executive meeting of JD-U in December 2023, before the party switched from the INDIA bloc to the NDA fold, JDU president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh was replaced by chief minister Nitish Kumar.