In his most candid conversation with the press so far, the reclusive 47-year-old urged the people to vote for the party and asked the cadre to pull up its socks, while keeping cards close to the chest on speculations about his own entry into politics.
He was mobbed by journalists at the memorial of his mother Manju Sinha, where he had come with his father to pay tributes on her birth anniversary.
The normally reticent Nishant broke into a wide grin when asked about the use of the word “laadla” (dear) for his father by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the day before.
“Of course, he would say so. Both of them are alliance partners,” said the CM’s son, unfazed by the contention of many opposition leaders here that the PM had belittled the JD(U) supremo by using a colloquial expression normally reserved for children.
“I want to appeal to the people of the state, especially the youth, to vote in greater numbers for the party this time. In 2020, the JD(U) got only 43 seats, still development work continued under my father. To ensure that progress continues with the same speed, the tally should improve,” he added.
Notably, memories of the assembly polls of 2020 have been like a proverbial sore thumb for the JD(U) which saw its tally crash in the 243-strong assembly, for which the blame was pinned on the revolt of Chirag Paswan, the then LJP president.
Paswan had fielded candidates, many of them BJP rebels, in all seats contested by the JD(U). While the BJP tried to mend fences by insisting that Kumar continue as CM despite his party winning fewer seats, relations between the two alliance partners continued to sour, culminating in the JD(U) supremo’s exit from the NDA in 2022.
Kumar thereafter went on to forge a nationwide “opposition unity”, vowing to dislodge the BJP from power, which resulted in the formation of the INDIA bloc, but did yet another volte-face last year just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections when he returned to the NDA.
Short of a majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP is now dependent on JD(U) and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to survive in power and Nishant hoped his father “would be declared the chief ministerial candidate by the NDA” and continue to occupy the top post after the elections.
He also, “I would urge members of our party that they fan out and apprise the people of the efforts made by my father in the last 19 years.” He also laughed off the suggestion of Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, that he join the opposition party, saying, “It is for the people to decide who should be on which side.” However, Nishant did not let his guard down, replying with a cryptic “just leave it (arrey chhodiye)”, as journalists tried to pry into his own plans to enter politics, in the backdrop of JD(U) putting up posters calling for it.
