Sanjay Jha Appointed as JD(U) Working President: Party Gears Up for 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections
On June 29, 2024, the Janata Dal (United) appointed Sanjay Jha as its working president during a national executive committee meeting at Delhi’s Constitution Club. Bihar Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar, along with party leaders Rajiv Ranjan Singh (alias Lalan Singh), Ashok Choudhary, and Devesh Chandra Thakur, attended the meeting.
Sanjay Jha, the JD(U) floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, is considered a close ally of Nitish Kumar. Formerly with the BJP, Jha joined the JD(U) in 2012. He ran unsuccessfully for the Lok Sabha from the Darbhanga constituency in 2014 but later served in the Bihar Legislative Council and was appointed Minister of State for Water Resources three times under Kumar’s leadership. Jha hails from Jhanjharpur in the Mithilanchal area of Madhubani district and represents the party’s upper-caste constituency.
Expressing his gratitude for the new role, Jha emphasized the importance of maintaining strong coordination with the BJP, their ally. He praised Nitish Kumar’s tenure as Chief Minister, highlighting the progress Bihar has made under Kumar’s leadership over the past 19 years, attributing the state’s achievements to its own resources. Jha also noted the lack of anti-incumbency sentiment against Kumar, as evidenced by the recent Lok Sabha election results.
The JD(U)’s national executive committee also discussed strategies for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections in 2025. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, JD(U) contested 16 out of 40 seats in the state, winning 12 of them as part of the NDA alliance with the BJP and other smaller parties. Additionally, the committee passed a resolution calling for special status or a special package for Bihar.
