After JD-U symbol, Nitish Kumar camp eyes Karnataka unit

New Delhi: After the Election Commission allocated the ‘Arrow’ symbol to it, the Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish Kumar is now focussing on trying to wrest control of the state units of the party, which had sided with the rebel Sharad Yadav faction. The party which has already decided to contest the Gujarat elections in a big way by fielding more than 100 candidates will now turn its focus on Karnataka which goes to polls next year.

As part of this strategy, the party would declare former Karnataka chief minister J.H. Patel’s son Mahima Patel as its state unit president on November 30. Mr Patel has already joined the JD(U) after meeting Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar last week.

Mr Patel, a former MLA and minister, is also expected to get a large number of supporters of the pre-split Janata Dal (United) with him to the party fold. His father J.H. Patel was one of the tallest leaders of the Janata Dal in Karnataka and was the state’s first non-Congress chief minister.

The senior Patel had witnessed turbulent days as chief minister after his mentor Ramakrishna Hegde was expelled from the party and the split in the party. He had later merged his faction with Mr Hegde’s Lok Shakti and entered into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

It is interesting to note that the current state JD(U) chief M.P. Nadagowd had sided with the Sharad Yadav faction after Mr Kumar had decided to join the NDA following differences with alliance partner RJD in Bihar.

“Many workers have evinced interest in joining us after the Election Commission recognised us as the real JD(U) by allocating the Arrow symbol,” JD(U) National Secretary K. C. Tyagi told this newspaper.

He said that henceforth his party would focus on expanding its foot prints across the country and make the JD(U) a national party in the run up to the 2019 general elections.