PATNA: Outgoing Bihar CM and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar’s 50-year-old son Nishant Kumar, who had long stayed away from public life, entered active politics and joined the party Sunday after his father filed his Rajya Sabha nomination three days ago.Crowds of party workers thronged the JD(U) headquarters in Patna, welcoming Nishant with garlands and a celebratory cavalcade of elephants, horses and camels.

Nishant promises to strengthen organisation

Wearing a white kurta-pyjama and flip-flops, he was inducted by party national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, who handed him the membership slip at a programme attended by senior functionaries. The alumnus of BIT Mesra had kept distance from politics until his 75-year-old father decided to move to Rajya Sabha after serving 10 terms as CM over roughly two decades.Addressing workers in his first speech as a party member, Nishant Kumar promised to strengthen the organisation and justify the trust placed in him. “I will try my best to live up to expectations of workers, party and public,” he said.Nishant called his father’s decision a personal choice respected by family and said he would continue working under his guidance. He credited his father for Bihar’s development. “People will not forget his contribution,” he said to loud applause.Soft-spoken and reserved, Nishant rarely interacted with media. After joining the party, he offered prayers at Mahavir Mandir in Patna, visited a tomb near Patna high court and distributed sweets to reporters. “Ishwar, Allah and Waheguru, all are same,” he said.Opposition reacted sharply. RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya mocked Nitish’s long criticism of dynastic politics. “Chacha ji… where has your hollow argument on dynasty politics disappeared? There has always been a big gap between your words and actions,” she wrote on X, adding Nitish represented “political and ideological contradictions”.Congress Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh welcomed Nishant’s entry but said Nitish himself should answer questions on dynasty politics.Nishant’s debut places him in a long line of children of Bihar CMs who entered politics. Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s family has one of the largest political footprints, with several of their nine children active in politics. Lalu’s youngest son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav served two terms as deputy CM.