Janata Dal (United)

History

Formation

The Janata Dal (United)'s origin goes back to the period before 1999 General Election. A faction led by then Chief Minister of Karnataka J. H. Patel had lent support to the National Democratic Alliance, leading to the split in the Janata Dal and the formation of Janata Dal (Secular) under H. D. Deve Gowda, who wanted to remain equidistant from both national parties; and Janata Dal under Sharad Yadav was called Janata Dal (United).{{Efn| 4 August, 1999: The Election Commission issued an order freezing the original "Chakra (Wheel)" symbol of the Janata Dal. To resolve the immediate need for election identities for the upcoming general election, the ECI granted "ad-hoc recognition" to the two splinter groups: The Sharad Yadav-led faction was designated as Janata Dal (United). The H.D. Deve Gowda-led faction was designated as Janata Dal (Secular).}}

The Janata Dal (United) was formed with the merger of the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal, the Lok Shakti and the Samata Party. On 30 October 2003, the Samata Party led by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar merged with the Janata Dal. The merged entity was called Janata Dal (United) with the arrow symbol of Janata Dal (United) and the green and white flag of the Samata Party. The uniting force is believed to be common opposition to Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar especially after the Rashtriya Janata Dal welcomed Samata Party rebels like Raghunath Jha into the party.

In NDA

JD(U) joined NDA and along with its alliance partner, the BJP defeated the RJD-led UPA government in Bihar in November 2005. The new government was headed by JD(U) leader, Nitish Kumar and NDA continued to govern state. The alliance contested 2009 Indian general election and won 32 seats. BJP won 12 while JD(U) won 20. JD(U) won 115 and BJP won 91 seats in 2010 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Thus together holding 206 seats in 243 member Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Out of NDA

JD(U) broke its 17 years old alliance with the BJP in Bihar in protest against the elevation of Narendra Modi as ahead of the election campaign committee of BJP for 2014 Indian general election. JD(U) President Sharad Yadav and then Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced their end of coalition at a press conference on 16 June 2013, exactly a week after Narendra Modi was made the BJP's campaign committee chairman, who was later made the prime ministerial candidate of NDA. Just after this split, Sharad Yadav relinquished his position as the NDA convenor.

The JD(U) contested the election in Bihar in an alliance with the Communist Party of India but they won only two seats out of total forty seats of Bihar while the BJP-LJP alliance won 31 seats. Following poor performance in election, Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar and Jitan Ram Manjhi sworn in as a new Chief Minister. When the trust vote was demanded by the BJP to prove majority in Bihar Legislative Assembly, the RJD supported the JD(U) in the assembly on 23 May 2014 to pass the majority mark.

The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance)

On 29 December 2014, Kerala-based Socialist Janata (Democratic) merged with the JD(U) with its leader M.P. Veerendra Kumar, accepting the party flag from JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar. This was an important milestone in bringing a pan-Indian appeal to the JD(U) which is largely limited to the state of Bihar.

On 9 May, MLA Jitan Ram Manjhi was expelled from the JD(U) and he later founded the Hindustani Awam Morcha along with 17 other dissent JD(U) MLAs.

In the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election JD(U) contested the election in an alliance with the RJD and Congress. It won 71 seats out of the 101 seats it contested and the alliance won 178 seats out the 243 seats in the assembly. Subsequently, Nitish Kumar again became the Chief Minister of Bihar.

In the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha held in March 2016, the ruling UDF of Kerala state gave one seat to JD(U) Kerala State Unit President M.P. Veerendra Kumar. In spite of having just 2 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly, the Congress gave a berth to its ally.

Alliance with NDA

On 26 July 2017 5 pm, Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation as Chief Minister of Bihar, ending 20-month-old Mahgathbandhan (grand alliance) rule. The next day on 27 July 2017 10 am he again took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar with the support of BJP. Same day evening, Kerala JD(U) chief M.P. Veerendra Kumar announced the split of Kerala unit of the JD(U) from the party, due to Nitish Kumar led Bihar unit joined hands with the BJP. On 28 July 2017, new NDA government won trust vote in Bihar assembly by 131 votes in favour and 108 against, four legislators did not vote.

Out of NDA

On 9 August 2022, Nitish Kumar announced that the JD(U)'s alliance with the BJP in the Bihar Legislative Assembly was over. He further made a claim that the new government in Bihar, a coalition of nine parties including the RJD and the INC would be a "Mahagathgandhan 2.0."

Reorganisation after 2020 Assembly elections

The JD(U), just like its parent Samata Party, had the core support of Kushwaha and Kurmi caste, which emanated from the great rally organised in 1993 at Gandhi Maidan, Patna. In 2020 Assembly elections, the party performed badly, and its seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly reduced to 43 from 75 in 2015 elections. The breakaway of the faction led by Upendra Kushwaha, who founded Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, was recognised as one of the principal reason behind reduction in support base of the party in many constituencies. In a bid to retain its support amongst its core vote base, the party made several organisational changes, like appointing Ramchandra Prasad Singh as national president of the party and Umesh Kushwaha as the state president. Meanwhile, it also tried to give effect to the merger of the Upendra Kushwaha led RLSP with itself. The RLSP was formed as a result of a split in JD(U) in 2013. Immediately after the merger, Upendra Kushwaha was made president of parliamentary board of the party.

On 20 February 2023, Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the post of president of parliamentary committee of JDU and membership of Bihar Legislative Council and formed another party named Rashtriya Lok Morcha as a breakaway faction of JDU.

However, Umesh Kushwaha, who was re-elected to the post of party's state chief in November 2022, continued to serve party in that position for the second term.

2024 Lok Sabha elections

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, JDU was granted 16 seats against Bharatiya Janata Party's 17 seats and it contested in alliance with BJP and Chirag Paswan led Lok Janashakti Party (Ram Vilas). It won 12 seats in this election and played an important role in the formation of the Third Modi government. With this victory, JDU changed the narrative that it has been weakened over the time under the leadership of Nitish Kumar with latter's growing age and lack of a next generation of leaders in the party.

This election also revealed JDU's hold and support base amongst the members of Extremely Backward Castes, which turned out to be the reason behind party's spectacular performance in the constituencies dominated by them. In order to consolidate its support base amongst the different caste groups, JDU appointed Dileshwar Kamait, a member of Extremely Backward Caste as its leader of parliamentary party in 18th Lok Sabha, Sanjay Kumar Jha was appointed as leader of parliamentary party in Rajya Sabha after the 2024 general elections.

Subsequently, Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur were made union ministers in Third Modi government from the JDU.

2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

In the 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, JD(U) contested the election in an alliance with the BJP, HAM (S) and RLM. It won 85 seats out of the 101 seats it contested with the BJP emerging as the single largest party and winning 89 seats. The alliance won 202 seats out the 243 seats in the assembly. Subsequently, Nitish Kumar again became the Chief Minister of Bihar.

Electoral performance

Lok Sabha elections

Assembly elections

Prominent members

• Nitish Kumar, National President, Chief Minister of Bihar.

• Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Member of Parliament and Former Bihar JD(U) President.

• Umesh Kushwaha, Bihar state President of Janata Dal (United).

• Ramsewak Singh Kushwaha, National General Secretary.

• Santosh Kumar Kushwaha, National General Secretary.

• Kushwaha Ramkumar Sharma, National General Secretary.

• Shri Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, National General Secretary.

• Manish Kumar Verma, National General Secretary.

• Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Former Speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly, Former Bihar JD(U) President & Former Leader of JD(U) Legislature Party.

• Harivansh Narayan Singh – Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (2018)

• Bashistha Narain Singh, Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha.

• Ram Nath Thakur, JDU Party leader in Rajya Sabha.

• Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Minister for Energy, Registration, Excise and Prohibition, Government of Bihar

List of chief ministers

Chief ministers of Bihar

List of ministers in union government

List of current Rajya Sabha members

List of current Lok Sabha members

National presidents

Notes

References

References

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