Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) on Saturday demanded that the Centre should grant special category status to Bihar. In the party national executive meeting in Delhi, the JD(U) nominated Rajya Sabha MP and close Nitish aide Sanjay Jha as the working president of the party.
This is the first JD(U) National Executive held after the Lok Sabha elections to discuss the party’s performance in the polls. Nitish Kumar chaired the meeting and all the party MPs, including Union Minister Lalan Singh, were present.
In the meeting, Nitish put forward a proposal to declare Sanjay Jha as the working president of the party, which was accepted by the party leaders. While there were speculations that Nitish might step down as the party president, he will continue at the post.
In its political resolution, the party praised Nitish for his “positive and discretionary” politics. “The Janata Dal (United), in the NDA coalition, fought on 16 seats and won 12. Today, the JDU has a notable contribution in the formation of the central government,” the resolution read.
The National Executive, in its resolution, also stated that since the JDU is part of the Central government, the aspirations of the people of Bihar are attached to them. “Special Status for Bihar is a long term demand of the JDU. We also stand by other backward states that need support in this regard,” the statement reads.
The BJP’s other significant ally, the Telugu Desam Party has also made the demand for Special Status for their state, Andhra Pradesh.
The party leaders also decided to contest Jharkhand assembly polls to be held later this year.
The national meet comes when murmurs have emerged from the Bihar unit of the BJP to have a chief ministerial candidate from the BJP for the upcoming assembly polls in the state in 2025. Last week, former union minister Ashwini Choubey said that the elections should be fought under BJP’s leadership. The comment led to clarifications from BJP.
Published 29 June 2024, 09:02 IST