A day before formally joining the JD(U) and beginning his political innings, Nishant Kumar, the son of CM Nitish Kumar, became active in the state’s political circles. Sources said Nishant on Saturday held discussions with senior JD(U) leaders on the party’s organisational issues.
Earlier on Friday night, he held a meeting with more than 20 legislators at the residence of JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha. The state’s transport minister Shravan Kumar, along with several senior leaders and young legislators, also attended the meeting, where Nishant discussed the future action plan on how to further expand the party’s footprint.
Nishant attended this meeting just hours after the JD(U)’s top leadership, during the meeting of the party legislators held at the CM residence on Friday evening, announced that the CM’s son would formally join the party on Sunday.
“Nishant will take the membership of JD(U) on Sunday at around 1pm,” the party state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha said on Saturday. Asked about Nishant’s role in the organisation, Kushwaha said: “We are enthusiastic to work under his leadership.”
Responding to a query regarding the ongoing discussion about the name of the new CM, Kushwaha said, “Since the CM’s chair has not been vacated yet, the discussion about a new name is pointless.
When our leader has not even resigned from the CM’s post, this question itself is useless and meaningless,” he said.
On the other hand, the JD(U)’s 10th-time MLA Hari Narayan Singh on Saturday claimed that a unanimous decision was taken to make Nishant the deputy CM in the new govt, to be formed after his father relinquished the CM’s chair. Singh, the MLA from Harnaut in Nalanda district, also claimed that Nishant, who is entering politics at the age of 49 years, would be elected to the state legislative council next month.
Speculation is rife that the CM’s post will now be taken by the BJP, which is the single-largest party in the ruling NDA, and the JD(U) might insist on having two deputy CMs with the crucial Home portfolio, a complete reversal of the arrangement that is currently in place. Of the two deputy CMs, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both from the BJP, the home portfolio, in which vests the control of the state police, is held by Samrat.
The opposition RJD continued to fish in the NDA’s troubled waters, alleging that Nitish was being “driven out of Bihar” by the BJP, which was also “denying him an honourable exit”. Former CM and RJD leader Rabri Devi told reporters, “Nitish is not giving up his post of his own. He is being driven out of Bihar by the BJP. But he should resist and refuse to buckle under pressure.”
Meanwhile, amid the ongoing political upheaval in the state, Nitish on Saturday reached the Lok Bhavan. He called on the outgoing governor Arif Mohammed Khan and held discussions for about 10 minutes. “Nitish came to meet Khan as part of the farewell protocol,” an official of Lok Bhavan said.
Meanwhile, the RLM president Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday called on CM Nitish Kumar at the latter’s residence. Kushwaha is one of the five candidates from the NDA for the Rajya Sabha elections. It appears Kushwaha discussed issues related to the Rajya Sabha polls during his meeting with Nitish, who also filed nomination for the same elections.
