PATNA: Former MLA Umesh Kushwaha (46) was on Sunday unanimously elected as Bihar unit president of the ruling Janata Dal (United), giving a clear indication that Nitish Kumar’s party is trying to re-strengthen its traditional support base of “Luv-Kush” (Kurmi and Kushwaha castes).
Kushwaha replaced Bashishtha Narayan Singh, party’s state president and Rajya Sabha member.
The election of Kushwaha, a former JD(U) MLA from Mahnar assembly constituency in Vaishali district, was ratified at the party's state council meeting which concluded in Patna on Sunday afternoon.
Kushwaha contested the 2020 assembly elections on JD(U) ticket from Mahnar constituency but lost to the RJD candidate Mrs Veena Singh, wife of former Vaishali MP and don-turned-politician Rama Singh who had twice defeated former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh in the previous Lok Sabha elections. Kushwaha had won the 2015 assembly polls as the Mahagathbandhan candidate from the same Mahnar seat, defeating his BJP rival. Then, the BJP and JD(U) had contested against each other.
"JD(U)’s Bihar unit chief and Rajya Sabha member Bashishtha Narayan Singh proposed the name of Kushwaha for the post of the party's state president, which was unanimously supported by the members present at the state council meeting," Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh told reporters soon after the meeting.
Earlier at the meeting, Bashishtha Singh expressed his desire to quit the party post in the wake of his poor health.
Supporting Kushwaha’s name, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said at the meeting that Kushwaha would take over the charge of his new responsibilities under the direction of the outgoing state party chief.
In his address, Nitish also said, "It is necessary for the expansion and strengthening of the party that members of the new generation are linked with the organization."
The CM also asked the party leaders to connect with young people and ensure a regular dialogue with them. "In the recent assembly polls in the state, the young people were misguided against us," he said.
Insiders in the JD(U) said, Kushwaha was picked-up for the party post by none other than Nitish Kumar. “The election of comparatively “youth” Kushwaha also reflects that the JD(U) preferred for a youth leader apparently to blunt the attack of young leaders like Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) and Chirag Paswan (LJP) in the state politics,” a senior NDA leader said.
?Nitish’s preference for a Kushwaha leader clearly indicates that the ruling party has decided to go back to its original traditional support base of "Luv-Kush" (the combination of Kurmi and Kushwaha). Nitish and JD(U) national president RCP Singh hail from the Kurmi caste.
Nitish further asked the party leaders to form a cell in the JD(U) office through which the complaints related to the corruption and incidents of crime are solved properly.