New Delhi ,March 13: The crisis in the JD-U appears to have deepened further as the central leadership of the party on Saturday disapproved of the state unit’s move to authorise Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to make all organisational appointments and chalk out the political strategy ahead of the Assembly elections.

A senior leader, who is considered to be close to JD-U president Sharad Yadav, insisted that by getting such a decision made at the state level, the chief minister is just “satisfying his ego and nothing else”. He said, “As per the party constitution, any structural change in the party can only be brought in by the national council of the party. Even if the state council has authorised Mr Kumar to take all decisions, the same needs to be endorsed by the national council.”
As of now, Mr Yadav is authorised to allocate party symbol to individual candidates in the elections at all levels and the Election Commission recognises only his signature. “If Mr Kumar wants to keep the right to allocate party symbols to candidates in the Bihar Assembly elections to himself, he needs to get the party constitution changed by the national council,” a senior JD-U functionary said. He, however, denied any possibility of a split in the party over the issue.
The Bihar unit of the party had on Thursday authorised Mr Kumar to make all organisational appointments and chalk out the political strategy ahead of the Assembly polls in the state, scheduled to take place in October-November this year.
At an extended meeting of the JD-U state executive council in Patna on Thursday, the party passed several resolutions, including the one giving sweeping appointment powers to Mr Kumar.
The meeting confirmed Vijay Kumar Choudhary as the Bihar JD-U chief, replacing Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan), who had resigned following differences with Mr Kumar. The council also passed a resolution to launch a signature drive for special category status to Bihar.
Sources in the party said that the resolutions were included at the eleventh hour and were not part of the original draft to be passed at the meeting.

MUKESH RANJAN