2 months on, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) gets KC Tyagi back into its top team

PATNA: Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) on Monday appointed its seasoned leader KC Tyagi as its chief spokesperson and special advisor barely two months after he was left out in the party’s revamped team, JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said in an order on Monday.

Lalan Singh’s order said Tyagi “is an experienced leader associated with socialist movement and has worked closely with Hon’ble Late Shri Chaudhary Charan Singh (Ex. Prime Minister) and Hon’ble Shri Nitish Kumar (Chief Minister of Bihar), hence we want his organisational experience”.

Tyagi, a former Rajya Sabha MP, was the principal general secretary-cum-principal spokesperson of the JD(U) before he was omitted from the list of office-bearers announced by the party on March 23. The JD(U) had then struggled to explain keeping Tyagi out of the party’s top team and eventually said that he was relieved of organisational responsibilities upon his “repeated requests”.

To be sure, Tyagi did confirm at the time that at his request, Nitish Kumar had indicated a new role for him.

Back in March, Tyagi was replaced by Rajiv Ranjan — an old JD(U) hand who returned to the party fold in January and was appointed as the party’s national spokesperson.

Ranjan, who is also a Kurmi leader like chief minister Nitish Kumar and comes from Nalanda district, was thrown out of the party for six years in 2014. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in August 2015 and was the Bihar BJP vice–president when he quit the party in December 2022. A JD (U) legislator said Ranjan doesn’t enjoy the national recognition as Tyagi does.