JD(U) Names MLC As Senior State Vice President

PATNA: The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Saturday named legislative council member Ravindra Prasad Singh as a senior vice president of the party's state unit. A communication to this effect was issued by JD(U)'s national general secretary Afaq Ahmed Khan, who said Singh's appointment has been approved by Kumar "in view of the upcoming state assembly polls".

A former national secretary, Singh, had been chosen for a legislative council berth in 2022, in an apparent attempt to send the message that grassroots-level workers had a future in the JD(U).

Singh's appointment to the key party post is being seen as a bid to consolidate the JD(U)'s support base among Kurmis, a powerful OBC group to which Nitish Kumar also belongs. Recently, another prominent Kurmi, Manish Kumar Verma, who had resigned from the coveted IAS a few years ago, was also inducted into the party and made a national general secretary.

The JD(U), which suffered a major setback in the assembly polls of 2020 when it won less than 45 seats in a 243-strong House, has been upbeat since the Lok Sabha election.

The party won 12 Lok Sabha seats, as many as ally BJP, which is numerically superior in the assembly, but with a better strike rate.