JD(U) mulls renaming party JD(U)-Nitish after two decades

The issue drew attention after JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said he had suggested renaming the party as Janata Dal (United)-Nitish.

JD(U) chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. (File Photo | PTI)

PATNA: The Janata Dal (United) is mulling a proposal to rename the two-decade-old party after its supremo and former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, is currently the national president of the JD(U).

The issue drew attention after JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said he had suggested renaming the party as Janata Dal (United)-Nitish. The proposal is based on Nitish Kumar’s political philosophy and principles.

A video also went viral on social media in which Jha can be heard saying at a workers’ meeting that the party owed its standing to Nitish Kumar and that its ideology was based on his political philosophy and principles.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and senior minister Shrawan Kumar on Friday backed the proposal. Both leaders are considered close to Nitish Kumar and have been with him since the Samata Party days.

Asked about Jha’s statement, Yadav, who had earlier served as the state president of the JD(U), said, “It is a very good suggestion. Let there be a formal discussion on the matter so that a decision could be taken unanimously.”

Shrawan Kumar, a senior JD(U) leader and minister in the Samrat Choudhary cabinet, said, “There could not have been a better proposal. I suggest that a formal resolution be brought by the party at the earliest. It is bound to be passed unanimously.”

The JD(U) was officially formed on October 30, 2003, following the merger of a political outfit headed by veteran socialist leader and former Union minister Sharad Yadav with the Samata Party.

Sharad Yadav remained the JD(U)’s national president until 2016, though Nitish Kumar was considered the de facto party leader throughout. Kumar formally took over as national president in 2016, a year before Yadav was edged out of the party.

Kumar gave up the top party post in 2020, when his close aide RCP Singh, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, became the national president. Singh’s acceptance of a Cabinet berth in the Union government without taking Kumar into confidence led to his replacement as party president by Rajiv Ranjan Singh “Lalan”, another key aide who is currently a Union minister.

However, Lalan too stepped down as party president in 2023, when Kumar was re-elected to the post, which he continues to hold even as the septuagenarian has become less politically active than in the past.

In April this year, Kumar relinquished the post of chief minister after having held it for two decades and was elected to the Rajya Sabha. His son Nishant Kumar was inducted as a minister in the new BJP-led government.

Meanwhile, Opposition RJD claimed that the proposal to rename the party indicated that it was “heading for a split”. RJD MLA Bhai Virendra said, “It is amusing to see such a suggestion coming from those who have been destroying the JD(U) from within to help the BJP”.