The Janata Dal (United) will hold its national executive meeting in Delhi on December 29. The meeting has been convened by Party president Lalan Singh amidst speculation that he could step down to make way for Nitish Kumar the Bihar Chief Minister to once again take over the reigns of the party.
Responding to the reports, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said, “I reject all rumours. The party has convened two-day meetings. There is a meeting of party office bearers in the office today at 4 pm. There will be a national executive meeting at Vithal Bhai Patel House tomorrow at 11 am, and in the second half national council meeting is scheduled. Nitish Kumar is reaching Delhi to participate in this meeting.”
He said that the decisions to be taken in the matter will be divulged later.
On questions, if any changes within the party are in the cards keeping the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in mind, Tyagi said, “All these things are internal matters of the party, they are neither commented on nor statements are made publicly.”
Amid these speculations around the national executive meeting of the Janata Dal (United) in the national capital, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on December 28, said that the December 29 meeting is part of the party’s tradition and it takes place once in a year.
“This is a normal meeting; it takes place once in a year. There’s nothing special in it” the Bihar CM said. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav rubbished the rumours about the resignation of JD(U) president Lalan Singh.
“These are all useless talks…Every party holds its national executive meeting. We also held our party’s national executive meeting in Delhi,” he said. However, as the Lok Sabha elections draw closer the BJP claims that a transfer of power in Bihar is in the offing, a claim strongly denied by the ruling coalition.
Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh said, “Nitish Kumar ji will remain the Chief Minister of Bihar for just a few days. Lalu Yadav has created a ‘chakravyu’ for this. The first step of this ‘chakravyu’ was making Awadh Bihar the speaker of the Bihar Assembly. Nitish Kumar will become former (CM) very soon… It is fixed that Nitish Kumar will not remain the CM anymore. In the next few days, Bihar is going to get a CM from RJD…”
The meeting also comes just days after the critical I.N.D.I 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 I.N.D.I bloc, even as Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal publicly announced Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as prospective PM Candidate.
Earlier on December 22, JDU MLA Gopal Mandal says, “People will not acknowledge, they don’t know who’s Mallikarjun Kharge. Now that you’ve mentioned his name, I got to know it. I didn’t even know that he is the national president of Congress…Nobody knows him. Common people don’t know him; they know who’s Nitish Kumar. He’ll become the Prime Minister as everybody knows him.”
At the national executive meeting venue, posters featuring Bihar CM Nitish Kumar read ‘Pradesh ne pehchana, ab desh bhi pehchanega’ (The state of Bihar recognised him, now the nation will) were put up.
(with inputs from ANI)
