PATNA: Former MLA Umesh Kushwaha was on Sunday elected unopposed as JD(U) state president for the second consecutive time for a term of three years (2022-25).
Kushwaha was elected the party state president in January 2021 in the middle of three-year tenure after his predecessor Bashishtha Narain Singh requested the party leadership to relieve him of organisational responsibility in the wake of ill health.
JD(U) de facto leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar handed over the certificate of election to Kushwaha during the party’s state council meeting here on Sunday. Earlier, the state council meeting, through a unanimous resolution, ratified Kushwaha’s election as the JD(U)’s Bihar Unit president. The state council, through another resolution, authorised Nitish Kumar for constituting the party’s national council.
As no other party leader turned up to file a nomination for the post of the state president on Saturday, the last date for filing nomination, Kushwaha became the sole contender for the post. He was elected uncontested as no one filed papers against him. The JD(U)’s state election officer Janardan Prasad Singh made a formal announcement about Kushwaha’s uncontested election, at the party’s state council meeting on Sunday.
As Kushwaha’s new three-year term would continue till November 2025, he would lead the party in Bihar during the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 state assembly polls.
Speaking on the occasion, Nitish not only thanked Kushwaha for his re-election but also announced that he (Nitish) would sit in the JD(U) office once a week after the completion of the organisational election and interact with the party workers.
Addressing the state council members, Nitish further recounted the works executed by his previous governments. The CM said he did work for all people belonging to all sections of society.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, while congratulating Kushwaha, said the party’s state team had done a marvellous job by making 70 lakh people as party members in a short period.
Stating that the JD(U) has taken a resolve to make ‘BJP-Mukt Bharat’ (India free of the BJP) in 2024 and ‘BJP-Mukt Bihar’ in 2025, Lalan further asked the party workers and leaders to work in the direction of achieving these two goals.
Kushwaha, in his speech, thanked CM Nitish Kumar and JD (U) chief Lalan Singh for reposing their faith in him. “I will work hard to fulfil the task given by the party leaders and leave no stone unturned to make the JD(U) the number-1 party of Bihar in the 2025 assembly polls,” Kushwaha said in his thanksgiving remarks.
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