Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, has dropped a bombshell on its party as he quit as party chief. RCP Singh, a close confidant of Nitish Kumar, was chosen as the new president of JD (U) yesterday. Kumar had proposed the name of Singh for the top post, which was then approved by other members during the party’s national executive meeting. The chief minister, who was re-elected as the JD(U) president in 2019 for three years, relinquished the post in favour of Singh, the party’s leader in Rajya Sabha.
After quitting as party chief, Nitish Kumar has reiterated that he had no desire to become the Chief Minister of Bihar and that he always wanted the mandate to be respected, no matter who became the CM.
During the JD(U)’s national executive meeting, Nitish Kumar reportedly said, “People are saying that the BJP wants the CM’s position. I do not care. I am not attached to the position.” Kumar claimed that he had to take up the CM chair due to immense pressure and he doesn’t care who takes up the Bihar hot seat.
“After the election results came, I made my wish known to the coalition. But the pressure was so much that I had to take up work again,” he added.
Interestingly, Nitish Kumar had ditched the BJP in 2016 Assembly Elections and created an alliance with the RJD and Congress, precisely to ensure that he becomes the Chief Minister. When the criticism against RJD started mounting, he had then again ditched the RJD and re-joined BJP to continue to be the Chief Minister.
Speculations are now rife that his sudden epiphany that he never wanted to be the Chief Minister of Bihar comes from his own party MLAs abandoning the ship.
Recently, 6 JDU MLAs had quit the party to join BJP in Arunachal Pradesh, kicking up a massive storm in the JDU. While the party leadership and senior leaders expressed displeasure over JDU MLAs joining alliance partner BJP, they said that this move is unlikely to affect the alliance in Bihar.
