The JD(U) on Saturday stole a march on the Congress by winning over Dr Arun Kumar, an influential Bhumihar leader and former JD(U) MP from Jehanabad, who had quit the party and joined the Congress on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls.
Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar, who had a narrow escape from a possible helicopter accident while returning from a visit to the family of departed leader and MP Digvijay Singh in Jamui on Friday, personally welcomed Dr Kumar back into the JD(U) at a grand ceremony in Patna attended by several JD(U) leaders and ministers in the state Cabinet.
The chief minister described Dr Kumar as “an old friend” and presented his return to the JD(U) as a “sweet homecoming” that indicating the successes of the NDA government he heads. He also used the ceremony to lambast both the Congress and his detractors within the JD(U).
Dr Kumar, who had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Jehanabad on a Congress ticket and lost to the JD(U)’s Jagdish Sharma, also joined the chief minister in ridiculing the Congress and its ongoing public-contact programmes in Bihar. Dr Kumar had emerged third in the Lok Sabha polls by securing only 48,487 votes as against Mr Sharma’s 2,34,769 votes.
“You did so well by quitting the Congress. Is that a party? With just three MPs and 10 MLAs in Bihar, the Congress is being given much more attention than is necessary in the state,” said the chief minister in his address at the ceremony organised for the formal induction of Dr Kumar into the JD(U).
Dr Kumar, who had joined the Congress in March 2009, said he was feeling “severely uncomfortable” in the Congress and found the national party’s public-contact campaigns in Bihar like the “gaon-gaon paaon-paaon” (visiting each village) to be meaningless. With the Assembly polls due in November, Dr Kumar’s return to the JD(U) is expected to help Nitish Kumar consolidate his support base among Bihar’s upper castes, who feel neglected.