Nitish Files Nomination Papers For JD(U) President's Post

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination papers for the post of Janata Dal (United) president for another three-year term (2025-28) on Thursday.

He has been holding the position since December, 2023. JD(U) working president and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha, Bihar minister Sharwan Kumar, MLC Sanjay Kumar Singh ‘Gandhi’ and several other leaders handed over Nitish’s nomination papers to the party’s returning officer for organisational elections Aneel Prasad Hegde in New Delhi.

“The nomination papers were filed before Hegde at the party’s central office located at 7, Jantar Mantar Road in New Delhi at 4pm,” JD(U) national secretary and headquarters in-charge Mohammad Nisar said. Nitish is expected to be elected unopposed as Thursday is the last day for the filing of nomination papers and nobody else is going to take a shot at the post. The announcement, which will be a mere formality, will be done on March 27. It will be his fourth stint as the party’s national president.

The nomination papers have been filed at a time Nitish has been elected to the Rajya Sabha and is slated to quit the chief minister’s post around the time he takes oath in the Parliament.

The move indicates that he will keep the reins of the JD(U) in his hands, especially at a juncture when his son Nishant Kumar has become its member and is poised to be entrusted with a bigger role in the party, as well as, in the new government that will be sworn-in the state. It will also come handy as the new chief minister is expected to be from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Nishant could become a deputy chief minister.

The JD(U) was formed with the merger of former MP Sharad Yadav’s faction of the Janata Dal, the Samata Party, and the Lok Shakti Paty on October 30, 2003. Socialist leader George Fernandes was its mentor and patron. Nitish first became JD(U) president in 2016, 2019 and then in 2023.

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