Ex-Union minister Nagmani quits JD(U)

Six months after joining the Janata Dal (United), former Union minister Nagmani resigned from Nitish Kumar's party on Sunday, giving a call to replace the Bihar chief minister with a 'Koeri' leader in the next year's assembly polls.

Nagmani, who had joined the JD(U) in April after being sacked as RLSP national working president in February, also charged the chief minister with neglecting the Koeri community to which he belonged.

"My only objective is to install a son of Koeri to the post of chief minister of Bihar after assembly elections in 2020. I will take sanyas from politics if I fail to do it," he said after announcing his resignation from the JD(U) at a meeting attended by his supporters and community members.

Nagmani said he has dedicated his life for the betterment of the Koeris and announced to hold a mega meeting of the community in Patna on February 29 next year.

Nagmani said he would take out "Jagdeo Rath" named after his father late Jagdeo Prasad from December 1 with a slogan "Nitish Bhagao, Koeri Lao".

The rath would visit every assembly segment to unite the community members, he said.

Nagmani had won the Chatra seat in 1999 on an RJD ticket but engineered a split in the party headed by Lalu Prasad and joined the BJP-led NDA, becoming a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre.

After the NDA lost power at the Centre, he switched over to Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP before crossing over to the JD(U).

His wife got elected to the Assembly on a JD(U) ticket and became a minister in the Nitish Kumar government while Nagmani himself got a berth in the legislative council. He subsequently joined the NCP but left the party ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls hoping to join the BJP, which fought the polls in alliance with Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP.

He joined the RLSP in 2017, calling Kushwaha the next chief minister of Bihar, and was made the national executive president.

However, he quit the RLSP in February, two days after he was sacked from the post of national executive president accusing Kushwaha of "selling" Lok Sabha tickets.