Ahead of State Assembly election in Jharkhand, former Minister and independent MLA Saryu Rai on Sunday joined the Janata Dal-United (JD-U). Mr. Rai had recently met JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna, and since then, speculation has been rife in Jharkhand’s political circles that Mr. Rai would be joining Mr. Kumar’s party.
Mr. Rai, the independent MLA from Jamshedpur (East), joined the JD(U) in presence of the party’s working president Sanjay Jha, the party’s Jharkhand president and MP Khiru Mahto, party leader and Minister in Mr. Kumar’s Cabinet Ashok Choudhary, party general secretary Manish Verma, and others, in Patna.
Earlier, Mr. Rai was with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but ahead of the 2019 Assembly election, he quit the party and fought the election against the then CM Raghuvar Das from the Jharkhand (East) seat as an independent candidate, and defeated him.
Later, he formed a political party, the Bharatiya Jantantra Morcha, but now, months before the Assembly election due in the State in October-November, he has joined the JD(U).
Mr. Rai is known as a politician who loves to call a spade a spade in politics. He originally comes from Bihar but after the bifurcation of Jharkhand as separate State from Bihar in November 2000, he shifted his political base to Jharkhand.
Mr. Jha, in a post on social media platform X, said: “Mr Rai has been a senior leader and shared a personal relation with chief minister Nitish Kumar for several decades. JD(U) will become stronger in Jharkhand with his coming to the party fold.”
Mr. Rai was one of the petitioners in the multi-crore fodder scam in Bihar in which Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad was convicted and sent to jail. Mr. Rai had also accused former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda in a mine scam, following which, later, Mr. Koda had to resign as Chief Minister of the State.
Published - August 05, 2024 12:14 am IST
