Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, former Jahanabad MP Arun Kumar and his son Rituraj Kumar rejoined the Janata Dal (United) [JDU] on Saturday, October 11, 2025. Their return to the party was formally announced by JDU’s national working president Sanjay Jha and Munger MP Lalan Singh, who welcomed the father-son duo into the party fold.
Arun Kumar had earlier been elected as MP from Jahanabad on a JDU ticket in 1999 and 2014 and is also one of the founding members of the party. In 2020, following differences with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he quit the JDU and floated his own party — the Bhartiya Sab Log Party (BSLP).
JDU leaders believe that Arun Kumar’s return will strengthen the party’s position in the Jahanabad and Magadh regions. The move is being seen as a strategic counter to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s efforts to woo influential Bhumihar leaders in the area.
Arun Kumar said, “I have returned to strengthen Nitish Kumar’s agenda of development and social justice. We will take on RJD’s casteist politics together with the NDA.”
Lalan Singh remarked that Arun Kumar and Chandeshwar Chandravanshi will bring a storm in Magadh, noting that Arun is a prominent Bhumihar leader who had once fought alongside Nitish Kumar against the Lalu-Rabri regime. Notably, Arun Kumar had won the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Jahanabad as a candidate of Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP.
Welcoming the return, Sanjay Jha said that under Nitish Kumar’s leadership, the NDA will once again form the government in Bihar, adding that this ‘homecoming’ could alter the state’s electoral equations.
