Jayant Raj Kushwaha is an Indian politician,

Member of Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several national ...

from the Amarpur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, and Minister of Rural Work in the Government of Bihar. In the 2020 election, he defeated Jitendra Singh of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. While Raj secured 33.13% of votes polled, Singh, the runner up, finished with 31.23% of the votes. Raj is a member of

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People's Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is a Social democracy, social-democratic and secular List of political parties in India, Indian political party, rooted mainly in East India, eastern and Northeast India, ...

, the ruling party of Bihar. Raj is the son of former Member of Legislative Assembly Janardan Manjhi who earlier represented the same electoral constituency of Amarpur. He completed his schooling from C N D High School Baunsi Banka, Bachelor of Business Administration from Marwari College, Bhagalpur,

Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University Tilka Majhi Bhagalpur University, formerly Bhagalpur University, is a public university in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India. It was established on 12 July 1960, having local colleges initially associated with Patna University. Its campus is around in ar ...

in 2010. Nitish Kumar trusted him with ministerial post despite him being a first time MLA, Nitish even came to his defense when the minister was being questioned on his work by BJP MLAs.

Political career

On 9 August 2022, Janata Dal (United) (JDU) led by Nitish Kumar broke its ties with the

Bhartiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joined hands with erstwhile political rival

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Other ...

(RJD) led by son of

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009. He is the founder and president o ...

Tejashwi Yadav Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (born 9 November 1989) is an Indian politician and former professional cricketer who served for two terms as the deputy chief minister of Bihar. He is the son of former chief ministers of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabr ...

. Jayant Raj, who was serving as minister for rural works resigned from his post and in the new government formed after coalition of RJD, JDU,

and other smaller parties, Raj was again reappointed minister, this time for Minor Water Resources in

Eighth Nitish Kumar ministry The Eighth Nitish Kumar ministry was the Council of Ministers in Bihar Legislative Assembly headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. On 9 August 2022, he walked out of the BJP's NDA alliance and announced his resignation. He then decided to for ...

. As minor water resource minister, he led establishment of regional registry office in Amarpur to deal with cases of land registration. It was established in order to reduce the burden on sole registry office located in Banka district headquarters. While inaugurating the registry office, Raj announced that the opening of regional office will not only sort out issues related to registration of land earlier, but will also create more jobs and enhance the revenue of government. In this second term as minister, Raj has also remained a critic of

Upendra Kushwaha Upendra Kumar Singh, commonly known as Upendra Kushwaha (born 6 February 1960) is an Indian politician, and a former Member of Bihar Legislative Council and Bihar Legislative Assembly. He has also served as Minister of State for Human Resources ...

(a rebel leader of Janata Dal United). He alleged Kushwaha was weakening Nitish Kumar; meanwhile, he also contended that the government of Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) was working for the benefit of poor and downtrodden section of society, while the activities of Kushwaha were destabilising it. In March 2024, he was made minister of building construction in the ninth Nitish Kumar ministry. This was his third term as a minister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raj Kushwaha, Jayant Janata Dal (United) politicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University alumni Bihar MLAs 2020–2025 People from Banka district State cabinet ministers of Bihar