Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Elected JD-U Legislative Party Leader

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been elected as the Legislative party leader of the JD-U for the next three year, news agency ANI reported on Wednesday. The decision to re-elect Nitish Kumar as party leader was taken during the JDU National Council meeting in Delhi. His term will end after three years in 2022. Nitish had taken over as the JD-U national president in 2016 after the party's then chief Sharad Yadav stepped down from the top post following a rift within the party.

Speaking at the meet, the Bihar CM said that he was not interested in the post and that he will work towards making JD-U a national party. Apart from Bihar, the JD-U was doing well in Delhi, Jharkhand and some states in the North East.

Experts believe the decision to elect Nitish as legislative party leader has been taken keeping in mind the 2022 Assembly elections. The JD-U has been contending that Nitish will be the face of NDA in Bihar even as the ties with major ally BJP remained restrained.

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After the recent criticism of Nitish Kumar by prominent BJP leaders following the flooding in Patna, saffron party preisdent Amit Shah had sought to quell the anger in the JD-U by saying that BJP will fight the next Assembly elections in Bihar under Nitish's leadership.

“The Janata Dal (United) and the BJP will go to polls together and we will fight polls under the leadership of Nitish ji. This is absolutely clear,” Shah had said adding that the alliance between the BJP and JD-U was "atal" (unbreakable).