Hundreds of JD(U) workers and leaders welcomed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at airport on arrival from Delhi after he was elected as party's new national president today.
Hundreds of drum-beating workers and leaders were seen waving party flags with garlands and bouquet in their hands to welcome Kumar.
Kumar was unanimously elected to the top post at the party's National Executive meeting which brought an end to the decades-old tenure of Sharad Yadav who had ruled himself out for a fourth term.
It is for the first time that Kumar, JD(U)'s face in Bihar, has been elected President of the state-centric party.
Its two previous presidents--George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav--were from outside Bihar, the state they virtually made their political home.
The move to put Kumar in complete command of the party comes in the backdrop of it's move to expand beyond the state with regard to alliances and also help position himself as a rallying point for opposition parties against Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today congratulated his alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for being elected as the new national president of JD(U).
"I extend my greetings and congratulations to Nitish Kumar for his election as new national party president of JD(U)," Prasad told reporters here.
There was no other alternative in the party except Nitish Kumar, Prasad said adding that Kumar would be able to lead the workers and leaders unitedly.
Taking a jibe at Nitish Kumar's election as new president, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that political power has been centralised in one more state centric party following Kumar's election as national president.
"Now Nitish Kumar too will have a pocket party like Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad. Kumar has neither faith in any leader nor believes in party's internal democracy," Sushil Modi - who served as Deputy Chief Minister under Nitish Kumar for eight years during NDA regime in the state - said.
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After sidelining George Fernandes, with whose support Nitish had evoled as a leader, Kumar has now sidelined Sharad Yadav, the senior BJP leader said.
"Whenever people of Bihar give huge mandate to Nitish Kumar to serve the state, he starts dreaming big to realise his ambition on national political scene," Modi claimed.
