Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday (February 22, 2025) said he would welcome it if rumours were to be believed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar would enter politics.
Ahead of Assembly election slated in the later half of the year, a section of ruling Janata Dal (United) leaders have been making statements that Mr. Nishant should join politics. Yet, he has himself shown no interest in doing so saying that he is more involved in religious activities.
‘Like my brother’
“I will welcome Nishant if he joins politics, he is like my brother. In democracy, everyone is allowed to join politics. He should definitely join. If he feels that he wants to serve society, he should join politics. I do not have any problem with it,” Mr. Yadav said while speaking to the media in Patna.
The former Deputy Chief Minister further said: “In fact, I would be happy because in Janata Dal (United), there are BJP and RSS mindset people who want to hijack the party formed by [late socialist leader] Sharad Yadavji. I would also like him to settle down as soon as possible.”
The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly also reacted to the statement made by Mr. Nishant that his father was 100% fit to run the State administration. Many times, Mr. Yadav has raised questions regarding the Chief Minister’s health saying that Mr. Nitish was not mentally fit to govern the State.
Scotches rumours
While speaking to the media at Patna airport on Friday, Mr. Nishant was posed questions about the next Assembly election, Mr. Yadav raising doubts about his father’s health, and talk about him joining politics.
In reply, Mr. Nishant reiterated that he would urge the people of Bihar to vote for his father and make him the Chief Minister again because he has done a lot of developmental work in the State since 2005. He had also said that Mr. Nitish Kumar was 100% healthy and physically fit to run the State. However, he downplayed the question of joining politics.
Mr. Yadav, though, said: “My father [RJD chief Lalu Prasad] is more physically fit than his father. My father has done more work in comparison to Nitishji. He (Mr. Prasad) implemented the Mandal Commission. He gave voice to the oppressed classes and he did extraordinary work while being Minister of Railways.”
He further said, “Nishant must think about those people who are presently with him. Be it Narendra Modi [Prime Minister], Samrat Choudhary [Deputy CM], Vijay Sinha [Deputy CM], Jitan Ram Manjhi [Union Minister] and Chirag Paswan [Union Minister]. These leaders earlier used to do press conferences and used to say that Nitish Kumar has gone mad and not mentally fit. Narendra Modi had even raised questions on Nitish Kumar’s DNA. So, Nishant should also give his opinion on this.”
On the other hand, Union Minister and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday posted a message on social media platform X saying Nishant should join politics. “If the son of a doctor becomes a doctor, it’s good, If the son of an IAS officer becomes an IAS officer, he’s capable. If the son of an engineer becomes an engineer, he’s promising, But if the son of a politician becomes a politician, there are many questions… This is not right… A warm welcome to the son of Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Nishant, into politics. HAM is with Nishant,” Mr. Manjhi said in the post.
