Janata Dal (United) reiterates Bharat Ratna for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar
The Hindu
JD(U) demands Bharat Ratna for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, receiving support from alliance parties, sparking political controversy.
Bihar ruling alliance party Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] has reiterated its demand for awarding Bharat Ratna to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying he “deserves the highest honour.”
Earlier in October 2024, the party had put up a poster outside JD(U) office in Patna demanding Bharat Ratna award for Mr. Kumar and later, ruling alliance party leaders including Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Jitan Ram Manjhi and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan had supported the demand.
“Deep within, every JD(U) worker believes that Nitish Kumar deserves the highest civilian award,” said a senior leader of the party. Mr. Manjhi even said he would urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Mr. Kumar be honoured with Bharat Ratna award.
“Nitish Kumar had worked tirelessly from the scratch for the turnaround of the State [Bihar] that had a situation like the one in Afghanistan. Mr. Kumar deserves Bharat Ratna or something even bigger as a recognition for doing what was considered unbelievable till a couple of decades ago pulling Bihar out of the abyss of hopelessness. Bihar was condemned as a failed State and nobody was ready to give it a chance”, JD(U) working president and party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha said at a party’s worker’s meeting in Purnea on December 11.
In January 2024, veteran socialist leader and former Chief Minister of the State Karpoori Thakur was posthumously awarded highest civilian award Bharat Ratna by the Government of India.
Mr. Kumar has been the longest serving Chief Minister of the State coming to power in November 2005, except for a few months when the then party leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, now a Union Minister, had occupied the post. Mr. Kumar had also been the Union Minister with key portfolios such as Agriculture and Railways in the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government Cabinet led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has taken a jibe over JD(U) leaders often reiterating and putting up posters saying Mr. Kumar “deserves” Bharat Ratna. “The reiterations of JD(U) leaders for Bharat Ratna for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have been proof enough that the party is in disarray and JD(U) is under pressure from ally BJP to vacate the chair of Chief Minister”, alleged RJD leader Mrityunjay Tiwari.
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