Patna. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over the command of JDU national president for the third time on Friday. Before this, he was made the national president in April 2016 and April 2019. Lalan Singh is the fourth person to step down from the post of JDU national president.
Here are the presidents of JDU till now
George Fernandes held the responsibility of National President of JDU from 2003 to April 2006. Sharad Yadav was the national president of JDU from 2006 to April 2016 and since then Nitish Kumar was the national president of JDU from April 2016 to April 2019 and from April 2019 to December 2020.
20 years ago in October 2003, JDU took shape from Samata Party.
On October 30, 2003, Samata Party led by Late George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar merged with Janata Dal. The merged party was called Janata Dal (United), in which the arrow symbol of Janata Dal and the green and white flag of Samata Party together became the election symbol of Janata Dal (United).
George was the founding president of the party
First of all, George Fernandes had to step down from the post of National President in April 2006. He lost against Sharad Yadav in the organizational elections of the party. He was removed from the post of president and Sharad Yadav was made the president of JDU. Sharad Yadav was also the national president of JDU twice.
How relations with George deteriorated
NDA was defeated in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and George-Sharad was reduced to just one MP. However, George Fernandes still remained the convener of NDA. In 2005, when Bihar Assembly elections were being held, Atal had praised Nitish a lot in a rally in Bhagalpur, but failed to call him the CM candidate. After this, an uneasy Nitish got the picture cleared with the help of Arun Jaitley, but George refused to approve it.
Difference of opinion regarding candidature for the post of CM
It is said that the rift between the two started from here. However, Nitish had then made it clear that George Saheb was not aware of the decision of his chief ministerial candidate in the NDA meeting. In 2005, when Nitish became the Chief Minister of NDA along with BJP, gradually the power center of JDU started focusing towards him. The party kept dividing into two factions. One is George’s faction and the other is Nitish-Sharad duo’s faction.
George’s ticket was cut and Nishad was made the candidate.
By 2009, the sourness between the two turned into a wide gap, when the 2009 Lok Sabha elections came, Nitish canceled the ticket of George Fernandes. In his place, Jaiprakash Nishad was given the ticket from Muzaffarpur. Angered by this, George struck an independent chord. Capitalizing on this opportunity, Nitish Kumar bid farewell to him from JDU.
In 2017, he himself became the president by replacing Sharad Yadav.
Due to the Jitan Ram Manjhi episode and before the formation of government with BJP in 2017, Sharad Yadav had to step down from the post of national president. In his place, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar himself became the national president of the party. After holding both the posts simultaneously for months, RCP Singh was suddenly given the responsibility of the post of National President of JDU.
Sharad was against leaving RJD
After merging his party with JDU in 2003, he remained its president continuously. Sharad remained the President of JDU till 2016. He left this post in April 2016 after completing three terms. Sourness had arisen between Nitish and Sharad when NDA had declared Narendra Modi as the PM candidate. Nitish Kumar was so angry with this decision that he broke ties with NDA. Sharad Yadav was then the convener of NDA. He had to resign because of this. Sharad did not want Nitish Kumar to leave NDA.
Sharad opposed joining NDA
Nitish-Sharad joined hands with Lalu Yadav in the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections. The election results were in his favor. Nitish Kumar again became the Chief Minister but in 2017 he turned around and joined the NDA again. Sharad Yadav was displeased with this and he opened a front against Nitish. Along with Sharad, Nitish Kumar also expelled Ali Anwar from the party. Because of this, both their Rajya Sabha MPs also left. He even had to vacate his Delhi house.
Suddenly RCP Singh was made the president
RCP Singh also remained on the post of president for a few months. Then Lalan Singh was brought to the post of national president. Lalan Singh was made the President of JDU on 21 July 2021. He was again given the command of the party president for the second time on December 5, 2022.
Had a lot of trust in RCP
RCP Singh was once active in the government and organization after Nitish Kumar. Nitish sent him to Rajya Sabha in 2010 and then made him the national president of JDU in 2020, but the distance between the two leaders started increasing when RCP became a minister in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. In fact, when Modi was expanding the cabinet in 2020, Nitish entrusted him with this task as a deal to ask for more seats in the cabinet. He was also the RCP party president, but RCP then made itself a minister. Nitish got angry with this.
RCP was removed and responsibility was handed over to Lalan
After this RCP came under Nitish’s target. The distance between the two started increasing. In 2021, he was removed from the post of party president. In his place, Lalan Singh was given this post in July 2021. After this, Nitish did not extend the tenure of ACP Singh in Rajya Sabha, due to this he lost his MP membership and ultimately he had to resign from the Modi cabinet. Later he joined BJP and started roaming around Bihar raising his voice against Nitish.
Lalan Singh was made president in place of RCP
He gave the responsibility of national president to RCP Singh. RCP Singh held the post of National President of JDU from December 2020 to July 21, 2021. After this, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh was made the national president of JDU on July 21, 2021.