NEW DELHI: Sanjay Jha was a protégé of the late Arun Jaitley.
Rajya Sabha member and long-standing Nitish Kumar loyalist, Sanjay Jha was appointed as the first working president of the Janata Dal (United). Kumar is the national president of the party.
The decision was announced during the party’s national executive committee meeting held at Delhi’s Constitution Club on Saturday, 29 June.
The 56-year-old Jha, for a long time was seen as the de facto face of the JDU in the national capital. Jha had joined the JDU in 2012 after resigning from the BJP. He was seen as a protégé of the late top BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
This relationship with Jaitley helped Jha in continuing his relationship with the BJP leadership even during the tumultuous times when Kumar had left the BJP-led NDA. During these times, Jha continued to maintain the line of communication with the saffron party.
When Kumar decided to ditch the RJD in Bihar in December last year and rejoin hands with the BJP, it was Jha who camped in Delhi to finalise how things would move ahead.
The soft-spoken Jha, managed to stay relevant in JDU’s scheme of things even as “taller” colleagues like R.C.P. Singh, Prashant Kishor Pandey and Lalan Singh loomed large but were eventually discarded by Kumar for stepping out of their shoes, something which Jha never did.
The appointment of Jha, who belongs to the Brahmin caste and was born in Jhanjharpur, Madhubani as the first working president of the party should be seen as Kumar’s message to the BJP. By appointing a man the BJP trusts, Kumar has made a political statement that he is not going to leave the NDA. Some party insiders believe that this is the first step towards the merging of JDU with the BJP in the coming days.
Bihar will go to the polls in October-November next year and by appointing Jha at the crucial post, Kumar has also sent a message to the forward communities that the JDU is not anti-Brahmin as is being perceived among certain quarters. The BJP in Bihar is right now being seen as an anti-forward, anti-Brahmin party. Hence, Jha’s elevation is a vital message to the voters belonging to the forward communities.