JD(U) re-inducts ex-MP who once threatened to break Nitish's ribs

Patna: Former Jehanabad MP Arun Kumar, who had for some time been a bitter critic of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Saturday returned to the JD(U).

The 66-year-old leader was inducted into the party, along with several supporters, in the presence of JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' and state unit chief Umesh Kushwaha.

Speaking on the occasion, Lalan, a former national president of JD(U), said, "We just saw Arun Kumar and Chandeshwar Chandravanshi share a warm hug. They will bring a storm (tufaan) in the entire Magadh region."

Notably, Chandravanshi had wrested the Jehanabad seat from Arun Kumar in 2019 by a slender margin of about 2,000 votes. The central Bihar seat, which is at present with the RJD, was won by Arun Kumar for the JD(U) in 1999.

A temperamental leader who had hit the headlines when he vowed to "break the ribs of Nitish Kumar" after quitting the JD(U), Arun Kumar won the Jehanabad seat again in 2014, on a ticket of RLSP, a breakaway group headed by Upendra Kushwaha.

He fought with Kushwaha soon afterwards and floated his own outfit Bharatiya Sab Log Party which failed to make an impact in 2020 assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls last year.

Arun Kumar's re-induction is being seen as an attempt to neutralise the damage that may have been caused by another upper caste Bhumihar leader from Jehanabad, Rahul Sharma, jumping ship.

Sharma, a former JD(U) MLA from Ghosi, had on Friday joined the RJD in the presence of Tejashwi Yadav.

His father Jagdish Sharma is a heavyweight of the area who had represented Ghosi a record eight times as an Independent candidate and on tickets of Janata Party, Congress and BJP, besides having won, in 2009, the Jehanabad Lok Sabha seat for JD(U).