PATNA, Sept. 19 -- The one-day orientation programme of the Janata Dal (United) - the first by the party - was inaugurated by party president and Rajya Sabha member Nitish Kumar at the JD(U) state headquarters on Friday to sensitise the people's representatives about the legislative procedures, the success of state's inclusive growth model and their role. The presence of health minister Nishant Kumar on the dais with his father Nitish Kunar, party working president Sanjay Kumar Jha and state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha, deputy CM Vijay Kumar Choudhary, ministers Shrawan Kumar and Zama Khan gave a clear message about his growing role in the party affairs, which many party leaders backed. It was, perhaps, the first time Nishant shared dais with Nitish in a big party function to send the message across that the political heir was ready and in the coming months, his role might increase. Nitish Kumar left the function after half an hour to leave it to his son and senior party leaders. In his address, Nishant clearly said the party would move ahead on the lines of Nitish Kumar and the leaders should focus on the implementation of '7 Resolves - 3' on the ground for the larger good of society. Without dwelling on the contentious issues, he emphasised the importance of 'Nitish agenda' to let people draw their own inference on the party's stand on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) or other issues, including the pressure of coalition politics as a junior partner. JD(U) working national president Sanjay Jha said the PRS Legislative Research provided information on the changes in Bihar, particularly in terms of financial sustainability, and explained how Bihar's revenue receipts increased through the budgeting process and how Bihar complied with the FRBM Act to script the path of progress. "Our leader Nitish Kumar has transformed the work culture of Bihar's politics through his actions and vision and brought about sanity. Before him, Bihar had also witnessed an era when politics was reduced to 'oiling and wielding sticks'. For him, politics meant accountability, good governance, and development. Under his leadership, the party has always strived to lead by example and Nishant also emphasised the importance of Nitish legacy," he added. Jha said in the last assembly elections, a good number of highly educated and young MLAs won on party ticket and the 'orientation programme' would be mainly useful for them. "It will sensitise them not only about the legislative procedures, but also about the strides Bihar has taken in different fields," he added. The absence of Union minister Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, Mokama MLA Anant Singh and a few others also drew attention, pointing to power struggle within the party, though senior party leaders played it down feigning ignorance. Away from the event, Anant Singh and MLC Neeraj Kumar intensified the war of words between them ahead of the Vidhan Parishad election for eight seats. Singh, who has said that he would back Anuj Kumar and not Neeraj Kumar, again reiterated his stand, accusing the JD(U) candidate of working against him and Lalan Singh in the past. Neeraj Kumar also retorted, saying Nitish Kumar's work and his supporters would give him another victory. The meeting also did not revolve around the JD(U) working president's proposal to replace the letter 'U' (united) in JD(U) with 'N' (Nitish) to make it JD(N), but many leaders like Lesi Singh, Zama Khan, Neeraj Kumar and others backed it. "The timing of the orientation programme when there is no session of the legislature scheduled did raise a lot of questions if everything was alright in the JD(U) and if the party was in any hurry to establish Nishant in the face of growing assertiveness of the BJP and offers from the RJD and the Congress to walk out of the NDA. But a feeble Nitish may not go that far where things could get difficult for his son as well as his party," said political analyst NK Choudhary....