Sanjay Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and RSS leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the NDA government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
Nearly 12 years after Sanjay Kumar Jha quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined the Janata Dal-United, he was appointed the JD-U's first ever working president at the national executive meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, June 29, 2024.
A day after this political development, it was widely reported that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the JD-U national president, promoted Jha to this position in the party for his loyalty and trust in him.
Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
In his first reaction after appointing Jha as the JD-U working president, Nitish Kumar said on Sunday, June 30, that Jha will stay in Delhi and look after party work.
With this, he made it clear that Jha will function as his main communication link with the BJP leadership.
Jha, who is in his mid 50s, began his career in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad background, the RSS' student wing, before graduating to the BJP.
"In the past decade, Jha has maintained communication channels with the BJP despite Nitish Kumar twice dumping the BJP during this period and joining hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal to form the government in 2015 and 2022," says a young JD-U leader known to be close to Jha.
"Whenever there was a need to establish communication with the BJP, Nitishji assigned this task to Jha who successfully completed it in 2017 and in January 2024 when we dumped the RJD and returned to the NDA fold," the JD-U leader added.
Newspapers in Patna had reported in 2012 that Nitish Kumar inducted Jha in the JD-U on BJP leader Arun Jaitley's recommendation.
A senior JD-U leader at the party's state headquarters in Patna recalled that soon after Jha joined the JD-U in 2012, he expressed his commitment to strengthening the then National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar, ignoring criticism by some BJP leaders for jumping ship.
"The message he gave was 'I am still in the NDA and I will continue working for strengthening the alliance in the state and elsewhere', and it assumes much significance in the given political situation now. Jha will work for continuation of the NDA's government in the state and Centre," the senior JD-U leader said.
A senior BJP leader, who has known Jha since his student days at the Jawharlal Nehru University, said when he was in the BJP and close to Arun Jaitley, he (Jha) worked as a link between the BJP stalwart and Nitish Kumar.
"Though Jaitley groomed Jha in politics and introduced him to several leaders, Jha grew close to Nitish Kumar when the latter was a Cabinet minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and earned his trust through his loyalty, helping him maintain a relationship with BJP leaders, mainly Jaitley," the BJP leader said.
By appointing Jha as the working president, Nitish Kumar has made him virtually the number 2 in the party after him.
"This is the first time Nitish Kumar has handed over the party command to a leader (Jha) known for his ABVP and BJP background. It never happened before," says a political activist, who was with Nitish Kumar in the Samata Party days in the mid-1990s.
"Nitish Kumar has chosen George Fernandes, Sharad Yadav, R C P Singh, an IAS officer turned politician and his close confidant Rajeev Ranjan alias Lalan Singh as JD-U presidents, all of them were either from the Janata Party Parivar or from a non BJP background," the erstwhile associate added.
"Jha will now run the party as Nitish Kumar's health is not good," this political associate claimed, adding that the Bihar chief minister understands that Brand Nitish has weakened and the BJP is in the role of big brother in the state as well as at the Centre.
"Jha has been elevated to the post to keep the communication with the BJP open and easy," he added.
Jha's appointment as working president ended speculation that Nitish Kumar would hand over the party's command to his advisor Manish Varma, a former IAS officer, as he had earlier done with R C P Singh.
Besides, Jha's promotion also ended the belief that Nitish Kumar's son Nishant Kumar would enter politics.
In February, Nitish Kumar chose Jha for the only Rajya Sabha seat the JD-U would win from Bihar. Before that, he was an MLC and a minister in the Bihar government.
In the first week of March, Jha accompanied Nitish Kumar during his visit to the United Kingdom.
Last week, Kumar nominated Jha as the leader of the JD-U's parliamentary party.
As Nitish Kumar is apparently not well, he finds it difficult to manage JD-U organisational work while simultaneously running the Bihar government.
According to JD-U leaders in Patna, Jha played a key role in Nitish Kumar's decision to dump the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan and return to the NDA on January 28, 2024.
It was not the first time that Jha had revived the JD-U-BJP alliance. In 2017, he had convinced Jaitley -- who was known to be close to Narendra D Modi -- about the same.
"Jha held several meetings with BJP leaders in New Delhi in January 2024 before Nitish Kumar announced that the JD-U would join hands with the BJP again," says a party insider.
"Jha acted as Nitishji's representative to finalise a deal with the BJP over berths in the government and the JD-U's share of seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," the insider adds.
BJP leaders in Patna credit Jha, a native of Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district, who belongs to the powerful Brahmin caste in the Mithilanchal region, for his close relationship with national BJP leaders that resulted in the setting up of Darbhanga airport and the approval to establish an AIIMS in Darbhanga.
Jha became an MLC from the BJP in 2006. Before that, he was the media advisor to then Union minister Rajeev Pratap Rudy from 2001 to 2004.
He joined the JD-U in 2012 and unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He was elected as an MLC in 2019, and appointed as a minister in Nitish Kumar's government.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
