KC Tyagi Severs Ties With Nitish Kumar's JD(U); To Play A Bigger Role in Uttar Pradesh Politics
JD(U) veteran K C Tyagi quits party, shifts focus to Uttar Pradesh politics, ending association while retaining commitment to socialist ideology and downtrodden welfare.
By Dev Raj
Published : March 17, 2026 at 4:49 PM IST
Patna: Janata Dal (United) stalwart K C Tyagi, who served as its face in Delhi for decades, has quit the party. He will enter the political arena in his native state, Uttar Pradesh, in the coming days.
"I will now devote my time to Uttar Pradesh, from where I contested the Lok Sabha polls six times. My relation with Bihar and JD(U) has been since the time of great socialist leaders like Karpoori Thakur, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, and Nitish Kumar. But I will now pay attention to Uttar Pradesh," Tyagi told ETV Bharat.
The 75-year-old leader will attend a meeting of like-minded political friends, sympathisers and activists in New Delhi on March 22 to "discuss the political situation of the country" and decide the future course of action.
The former MP's move coincided with Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar's election to the Rajya Sabha, which signalled that he was moving away from active politics amid indications of health-related issues.
Tyagi had issued a written note about no longer being a member of the JD(U) on March 16, the day Nitish was elected to the Upper House of the Parliament. However, it came to light on Tuesday.
"The membership campaign of the party has ended. This time, I have not renewed my membership. Though my commitment to the larger and wider ideological points concerning the interests of downtrodden, peasants and agriculturalists, including the deprived sections of the society, remains as firm as ever. My future course of action will be decided soon in consultation with all the required people," Tyagi said in his note.
Remembering that the JD(U) came into existence on October 30, 2003, with the merger of the Samata Party and Janata Dal, Tyagi, who hails from Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh and was a founder-member, pointed out that he worked as its secretary-general while George Fernandes was its president.
He later worked as the chief general secretary, secretary-general, chief spokesperson, and political advisor of the JDU during the tenure of Sharad Yadav and Nitish as the party president.
"My personal respect for Nitish Kumar, who remained my comrade for close to half-a-century, remains unchanged," Tyagi added. The former JD(U) leader asserted that he will continue to be inspired by the ideas and ideology of former Prime Minister and peasant leader Chaudhary Charan Singh, and socialist leaders Ram Manohar Lohia and Karpoori Thakur.
Tyagi also worked with socialist leaders like Raj Narayan, former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Tyagi’s move was long overdue. The party ignored his request for another term in the Rajya Sabha in 2016, and his position weakened further when his son Amrish joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
An old-school socialist, Tyagi had to contend with the then political strategist Prashant Kishor, R.C.P Singh, and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, aka Lalan Singh, as they took charge of the JD(U) one after the other. The JD(U) started sidelining him rapidly from 2023 onwards, while Nitish started showing symptoms of dementia.
Though considered a Nitish loyalist, he was dropped as the party's national general secretary and chief spokesperson in March 2023, ending a two-decade-long stint as the JD(U) link to Delhi, its political circles and the media.
However, he was reappointed 'national chief spokesperson' of the party after two months and served in that position until September 2024. He was kept as a political advisor to the JD(U) for some time, but was left with little role to play.
Of late, the party started disowning his statements and took serious umbrage at his unilateral demand of the Bharat Ratna award for Nitish in January 2026. However, with the decision to devote more time to politics in Uttar Pradesh, Tyagi’s presence will stir up more heat and strengthen the Opposition in the state, which will go to the Assembly polls in 2027.
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