NEW DELHI: JDU leaders have begun to contemplate who should lead the party amid reports of Nitish Kumar’s deteriorating health.
After Janata Dal United’s good performance in the Lok Sabha elections, where the party secured 12 seats, its leaders are want Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant to succeed his father to lead the party and become a “cohesive force”, as reports of Nitish’s poor health gains pace.
The demand for his son to come to the forefront, according to party insiders, is to dispel the probability of other leaders (who are close to Nitish) from becoming the leader of the party which would naturally sideline the other competitors within the camp. A party insider said, “If Nitish gives the reins of his party to one of his close aides, the other close aides will feel downgraded and at the same time lose proximity to the centre of power in the party.
The new leader will have loyalists whom he would want to advance. Such a situation could lead to an internal tussle and eventually break the party. Since Nishant’s entry into the party is much talked about, he can formally enter politics soon, but whether he will replace his father or not is another and a much serious matter.”
Word is that Sanjay Jha could be removed from the post of national general secretary of JDU which would subsequently be given to Nishant so that he can have considerable power within the party and get exposed to the mechanism of organisational work first hand. The insider said, “There could be more changes within the organisation but the most awaited one is whether his son is going to take a plunge into the party politics or not. Such a change will change the dynamics of the party. The preparation is to be done for the Assembly elections. But how Nitish will act is still a mystery. He is someone who wouldn’t want to give the chair to anyone. Not even to his son. He is very particular about that. But the circumstances are changing and are changing fast.”
According to some leaders in the party, if Nitish fails to instill confidence in his cadre and delays his decisions, the party could be at the crossroads. The leaders would start disassociating themselves from the centre of power that has started to become weak.
According to a senior leader, “The decisions flow from Nitish. He is the nerve centre of the party. If his illness impacts his decision making and the party functioning becomes slow, leaders naturally would be left to think for themselves, they would rather decide to leave the party and look for greener pastures and a vibrant future. They would not want to stay with a leader who is not clear about future political ventures.”
According to political analysts, the reduction in JDU’S vote percentage and the increase in the RJD’s vote percentage show increased acceptance of Tejashwi Yadav. Therefore, the upcoming assembly elections could be the final point of deciding the future for JDU. An analyst said, “First it was expected that the party will perform very poorly in the Lok Sabha elections, but it came out of that twist. However, the party is still dwindling from the inside but how long it would be able to balance the pulls and pressures of running the government is not known. He has a lot of options, but not one of them indicates resurrection of the party in the Assembly elections.”