EBC leader Mangani Lal Mandal set to become next RJD Bihar unit chief ahead of elections

Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Saturday appeared all set to have an EBC (Extremely Backward Class) leader as its Bihar unit chief with veteran politician Mangani Lal Mandal filing his nomination papers at the party office in the presence of founding president Lalu Prasad.

Mandal, a former state minister and an ex-MP with tenures in both Houses of Parliament, had returned to the RJD in January this year after severing ties with the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

According to RJD spokesperson Chittaranjan Gagan, who is also the returning officer for the party's organisational polls, Mandal was the only candidate to have filed his nomination papers for the post till the process came to an end in the afternoon.

"Tomorrow is the date for scrutiny of nomination papers and if these are found to be in order, and Mandal does not withdraw from the poll, he will be declared elected to the post of state president on June 19," Gagan added.

Mandal had joined the JD(U) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls alleging that the Extremely Backward Classes were getting a raw deal in the RJD. He was made the national vice president of the JD(U), but downgraded a year later, when he found himself among a dozen national general secretaries.

He is said to have grown disillusioned with the JD(U) upon being denied a ticket in last year's Lok Sabha polls.

He would succeed Jagadanand Singh, an upper caste leader who had two consecutive terms as state president. Singh, whose son Sudhaker is the MP from Buxar, has not been keeping well for some time.

Mandal's rise to prominence could be seen as part of the party's strategy to galvanise, in its favour, the numerically powerful backward classes ahead of the assembly polls.