The Janata Dal United on Saturday came out with its new list of national office bearers, approved by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who took over as the party president less than a month ago.

Veteran socialist leader Vashishth Narayan Singh, a close aide of Kumar who stepped down as the state unit chief three years ago citing health reasons, has been made the national vice-president.

Singh, whose friendship with Kumar dates back to the 1974 students’ movement in Bihar led by Jayaprakash Narayan, replaces Mangani Lal Mandal who in March last year became only the second leader to have been made the JDU’s vice-president after former poll strategist Prashant Kishor who was given the top post in 2017.

Mandal has been made a national general secretary.

The party’s most visible face in the media, K.C. Tyagi, has been designated as “political advisor and spokesperson”. The other spokesperson in the list is Rajib Ranjan, a former MLA from the Nitish’s home district of Nalanda, who returned to JDU last year after quitting the BJP.