Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s only son is likely to enter politics, said sources in the ruling Janata Dal United.
Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant, who is an engineering graduate from BIT Mesra, had so far led a private life although the children of other leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Jagannath Mishra are in politics.
Nishant made a public appearance last year when he went to the swearing in ceremony of his father in Patna in November 2015. That was the first ever political function which he attended. Recently, posters and billboards with his picture figuring prominently on them were put up in Nalanda, Nitish’s political constituency for many years. Nalanda also includes Kalyanbigha village where the CM was born.
The billboards were erected when Nitish visited Nalanda to pay homage to his mother on the occasion of her sixth death anniversary.
“Nishant till now was not politically active. After the recent victory of the Grand Alliance in the Bihar Assembly elections, he has started taking an interest in politics and this was for the first time that his picture was displayed publicly along with other party leaders,” a JDU office bearer said.
The JDU MP from Nalanda, Kaushalendra Kumar said there was nothing unusual in Nishant entering politics. “He speaks well, and he is more educated than the children of many other politicians. Even the party workers feel that he should become more involved now,” he said.
Till now, Nitish had given no hints of inducting Nishant in politics. “The first time he was seen publicly with Nitish was during the funeral ceremony of Kumar’s wife Manju Sinha who passed away in May 2007. With the entire family of Lalu now settled in politics, and Ram Vilas Paswan too making sure that his legacy is passed on to his son Chirag, there is no harm if Nishant follows in his father’s footsteps. He will definitely be in a different league than the other political scions who are active,” a Patna based journalist with an English daily said.
However, another senior journalist who is very close to Nitish said that it was unlikely that Nitish will launch Nishant into politics “in a big way”. “Nitish has always resisted promoting anyone from his family in politics. Even if Nishant joins the party, it is very unlikely that he will be made a senior party functionary anytime soon,” he said.
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