Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said that the JDU would contest the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections under the NDA umbrella and aim to win 220 of the total 243 seats.

He also promised 12 lakh jobs before the state polls.

As the national president of the JDU, Nitish spoke for around 45 minutes at the state executive of the party in Patna. The focus of the meeting was on the coming Assembly elections. Around 400 senior leaders, barring Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh, were present.

JDU executive president and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha briefed about the closed-door meeting.

“The chief minister gave the party leader and workers a target of 220 seats for the year 2025. He reminded them that NDA had clinched 206 seats out of the total 243 in the 2010 Assembly elections. He exhorted them to reach out to the people and highlight the welfare works done by the state government,” Jha told reporters.

He added that Nitish was buoyed by the JDU performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, which helped the NDA win 30 out of the 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar. He expressed pleasure over the party leading on 77 Assembly seats in the general elections.

Nitish said that the state government has provided 7 lakh jobs so far and announced that it would give another 12 lakh jobs to the youths before the Assembly polls.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president for providing “special financial status” to Bihar, which it had been seeking if “special category status” was not possible.

The JDU later passed a resolution that it would contest the 2025 Assembly polls as part of the NDA under the leadership of Nitish, thereby putting all speculations over his retirement plans to rest. There have been worries about his health for the past several months.

The move was also seen as a preemptive measure about a scenario in which the BJP wanted a change as to who would lead the NDA in the state polls and be the chief ministerial candidate.

Nitish had announced during the 2020 state elections that it was his last polls, though his party had later dismissed it as an emotional appeal.

The other resolutions adopted by the party include “sangat-pangat (meet and dine)” programme between the workers of all allied parties for better coordination and countering the Opposition propaganda. The leaders and workers of the erstwhile Samata Party (formed by socialist leader George Fernandes and Nitish in 1994), which acted as a predecessor of the JDU, would be honoured and brought to the JDU’s fold.

The JDU has decided to have 10 workers at every booth to strengthen its presence at the grassroots during the elections. It also asserted that Nitish's works adhered to the ideals of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.

Prior to the state executive, posters demanding Bharat Ratna for Nitish had appeared outside the JDU office and other prominent places in the state capital.

Jha said: “I have no idea about the posters, but it will be a matter of pride for Bihar if such an honour was bestowed on our leader. It is his work that the word ‘Bihari’ is no longer seen as a gaali (abuse). He gives an idea of how great historical figures like Chandragupta Maurya would have been.”