J D(U) leaders tour UP, party eyes 2027 polls as NDA ally
Nishant begins Mission UP for JD-U, says party to contest polls as NDA ally
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Patna — Bihar health minister Nishant Kumar said on Sunday that his party was exploring the possibility of fighting upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh as an ally of the BJP-led NDA. Nishant, the son of JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, was in Varanasi with party leaders like Sanjay Jha, Shrawan Kumar, Jama Khan and others.
The JD(U) has been contesting polls in UP and it won two seats in 2002 and one in 2006.
"At present, there have been no formal talks with the BJP, but our senior leaders are discussing the matter and a decision will soon be taken. My effort is to take my father, former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's development mindset forward and create a strong platform for the party," he told media persons in Varanasi.
Maintaining that the JD(U) is basically a Bihar party, Nishant said that the party has had its presence in many states and its presence has been strong in the
kms. Bihar health minister Nishant Ki president Sanjay Jha being felici Varanasi on Sunday.
north-east. "In UP, we are planning to jump into the electoral fray as an NDA ally," he added.
He, however, said that formal talks in this regard with the BJP had yet to happen. "It will happen at the earliest. I have come because the party workers in UP have wanted this for a long time," he added.
Nishant Kumar is spreading his wings beyond Bihar for the first time and party leaders feel that the forthcoming UP elecimar
and JD(U) working ated by party workers in HTPHOTO
tion could give him the ideal launch, though it is still not clear how many seats the party would like to contest in UP as part of the NDA.
After attending the party's state-level workers conference in Varanasi on Sunday, he will also attend similar party programmes in Lucknow, Balia, and Barabanki in the coming weeks. Party leaders say that preparations have been made so
About the Author
Arun Kumar is a veteran journalist and Associate Editor with Hindustan Times, based in Patna. For more than three and a half decades, his reporting has chronicled Bihar's complex political landscape, university and educational reforms, landmark judicial rulings of the Patna High Court, administrative governance, and social shifts across the state. Known for deep investigative reporting and source-grounded accountability journalism, he is a recipient of the prestigious K.C. Kulish Journalism Award and the Keshav Bhatt Journalism Award, and is an LDM Fellow.