During the meeting, JDU president Lalan Singh, citing his engagements over upcoming Lok Sabha elections, offered to step down as party president and proposed the name of Nitish Kumar. Singh is currently an MP from Munger. KC Tyagi, JDU chief spokesperson briefed the media after the meeting and said that on the request of the party leaders, Nitish Kumar has accepted to lead the party going forward.
In his speech, Lalan Singh said that the party needs Kumar’s leadership at this time and Singh will be busy with his own parliamentary elections. Speculation was rife for a week about Singh’s resignation. However, the party leaders and Singh himself had previously denied this.
Sources tell ET that a section of the party leaders were unhappy over the functioning style of Lalan Singh ever since he became party president in July 2021. Some of the party leaders also raised red flags with Nitish Kumar of Lalan Singh’s proximity with the RJD after the two parties came together to form the government in Bihar in August 2022. However, JD(U) leaders refute the differences of opinion among the two leaders. “The word ‘united’ is not only in our party’s name but we are united,” Tyagi told ET.
To show a united figure, both Nitish Kumar and Lalan Singh came to attend the meeting in one car and left after the meeting together.
During the meeting, Nitish Kumar was praised for his role in bringing the opposition together as INDIA bloc. Kumar was also lauded for conducting the caste-based survey and thereby increasing the reservation quota to 65% from existing 50% for OBC, SC and ST community. The political resolution read that the party will continue to demand a similar nationwide caste-based survey.Nitish Kumar is also set to start a Jan Jagran Yatra in the first week of January from Jharkhand pushing for a caste-based survey across the country.
