Patna: When Manish Verma was inducted into the Janata Dal (United) formally in Patna on 9 July, it was expected that parallels would be drawn between the former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer and Nitish Kumar’s former friend-turned-adversary R.C.P Singh.
After all, there are two factors common between the two former civil servants that link them with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar — all the three hail from Nalanda district and are from the Kurmi caste.
Like Singh, who took voluntary retirement from the IAS in 2010, Verma took the same route in 2021. After he stepped out of civil services, the 2000-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer joined Nitish Kumar’s inner coterie as advisor and is now seen as his confidant — a privilege which Singh previously enjoyed as someone who had the eyes and ears of the Bihar chief minister.
But, the parallels end there. Singh, a former IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was sent twice to the Rajya Sabha and even made the party’s national president in December 2020 before his two-decade ties with Nitish nosedived leading to his exit from the JD(U).
Singh was accused of becoming too close to the BJP, and he eventually joined the party in May 2023. Today, with Nitish’s importance to the BJP as the head of the second largest NDA ally, Singh is now seemingly left with no major power — the former Union minister stepped down from his post in July 2022 after the BJP denied him a third consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha.
In contrast, Verma has seen his stock rise steadily as seen in his elevation as the JD(U) national president “with immediate effect”. Further, it lent heft to the talks in political circles that Nitish was grooming him as his successor.
“Not all IAS officers join politics. The decision to join politics was my own, and I am grateful to Nitish Kumar for giving me responsibility. I have been an admirer of Nitish Kumar and how he changed Bihar. When my deputation in Bihar ended in 2021, I thought I would not be able to serve my home state and, therefore, I quit and met Nitish Kumar who made me an advisor,” Verma told ThePrint.
He, however, did not specify his new role stressing that he had just joined the post.
राष्ट्रीय महासचिव बनने के बाद श्री मनीष कुमार वर्मा जी का पहली बार प्रदेश कार्यालय, पटना आगमन पर स्वागत कार्यक्रम का आयोजन किया गया।
इस मौके पर पार्टी के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष श्री उमेश सिंह कुशवाहा जी, विधान पार्षद श्री संजय कुमार सिंह 'गांधी जी', पूर्व राज्य सभा सांसद श्री अनिल… pic.twitter.com/fi4abEzPk6
— Janata Dal (United) (@Jduonline) July 13, 2024
Incidentally, two Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar will go to bypolls due to the election of Misa Bharati of RJD and Vivek Thakur of the BJP to the Lok Sabha
“Manish Verma will get the JD(U) nomination. It is a done deal. That is why Manish quit the job of advisor of CM before he formally joined the JD(U). It would have amounted to a post of benefit,” a JD(U) minister close to Nitish, told ThePrint.
Also Read: ‘Gameplan changed’—why sidelining Nitish is no longer an option for BJP
Difference between RCP & Verma
Inner circles in the corridor of power — with whom ThePrint spoke to — point out that there is a difference between Singh and Verma.
“Singh had a personal contact with Nitish for more than two decades before he took a VRS and joined JD(U) and became a Rajya Sabha MP in 2010. On the other hand, Manish Verma did not know Nitish in 2012 when he was deputed to Bihar,” said the JD(U) minister.
“He became acquainted with Bihar’s power structure through another Odisha cadre IAS deputed in Bihar — Sanjay Singh (who later returned to Odisha). RCP was sharp and had political ambitions, always trying to create a network in Delhi and Patna. Manish is a man of very few words and only does work that is assigned to him by Nitish.”
Despite his stint in Bihar, Manish was given key postings like being made the district magistrate of Purnea and Patna. He was the Patna DM in 2014 when 33 people were killed in a stampede at Gandhi Maidan during Dussehra.
The right message
In June, Nitish set the tongues wagging when he nominated his close confidant Sanjay Jha as the national executive president of the JD(U). The talks centred around how a Brahmin was given a key post in the JD(U) whose core votes comprise Kumis, Kushwahas and a section of Extremely Backward castes.
By elevating Verma as the JD(U) national secretary, Nitish has rectified any adverse perception created by naming Jha as the national executive president.
“Jha has been elevated because of his rapport with the BJP. Verma will be doing the actual job of structuring the party and will be a key member in advising Nitish on political issues. He has already done it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” the above-mentioned JD(U) minister said.
A protégé of the late Arun Jaitley, Jha had joined the JD(U) from the BJP in 2012.
Ever since Nitish Kumar came to power in 2005 , there has been a consistent charge that his stint marked bureaucracy’s over politicians. Previously, he depended on Afzal Amanullah whose wife, the late Preveen Amanulla, was a minister.
Even today, former chief secretary Deepak Kumar is said to be the most powerful person after Nitish. After his retirement in 2021, Kumar was drafted into the CMO as the principal secretary to the chief minister.
“All chief ministers have had their favourite IAS officers. During the Lalu-Rabri era, Mukund Prasad was the all-powerful officer but nobody has promoted IAS officers as politicians,” former MLC Prem Kumar Mani told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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