Bihar CM Nitish Kumar elected JD(U) president, Lalan Singh steps down
PTI. The national council meeting of the party, scheduled to be held later in the day, is likely to ratify decisions taken in the executive meeting. Sources said most key leaders within the party were of the view that Kumar being its most prominent face should take charge of the organisation at this crucial time in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
The party is part of the opposition INDIA bloc. Singh's leadership style was also criticized by several leaders within the party in their recent interactions with Kumar, as per PTI reports. Both Kumar and Singh have played down the reports of key changes being adopted in the party and have called these meetings routine.
The two leaders go back many decades and Singh has been a key ally of Kumar except for a period between 2010 and 2013 when he had quit the JD(U). Shortly before leaving Patna for the national capital, the Bihar chief minister asserted that the JD(U)'s two-day conclave in Delhi was a "normal and annual" affair with "nothing extraordinary" about it, rejecting speculations of turmoil in his party. “Nitish Kumar is our supreme leader and the JDU is one and will always remain one," said Lalan Singh on Thursday.
The meeting came just days after the critical INDIA alliance meeting in Delhi. The JDU which is part of the alliance will now be getting into hectic parleys with the Congress on the alliance combination for the state. Amidst this many JDU leaders are making a pitch for Nitish to lead the INDIA bloc, even as Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal publicly announced Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as prospective PM Candidate.
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