Formation ,
Umesh Singh Kushwaha and
Vijay Kumar Chaudhary participating in nomination of party's national General Secretary
Shri Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha to Bihar Legislative Council in 2024 alongside Bharatiya Janata Party state chief
Samrat Choudhary and others. The Janata Dal (United)'s origin goes back to the period before
1999 General Election. A faction led by then
Chief Minister of Karnataka J. H. Patel had lent support to the
National Democratic Alliance, leading to the split in the
Janata Dal and the formation of
Janata Dal (Secular) under
H. D. Deve Gowda, who wanted to remain equidistant from both national parties; and Janata Dal under
Sharad Yadav was called Janata Dal (United). The Janata Dal (United) was formed with the merger of the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal, the
Lok Shakti and the
Samata Party. On 30 October 2003, the Samata Party led by
George Fernandes and
Nitish Kumar merged with the Janata Dal. The merged entity was called Janata Dal (United) with the arrow symbol of Janata Dal (United) and the green and white flag of the Samata Party. JD(U) won 115 and BJP won 91 seats in
2010 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Thus together holding 206 seats in 243 member
Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Out of NDA JD(U) broke its 17 years old alliance with the
BJP in
Bihar in protest against the elevation of
Narendra Modi as ahead of the election campaign committee of BJP for
2014 Indian general election. JD(U) President
Sharad Yadav and then Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar announced their end of coalition at a press conference on 16 June 2013, exactly a week after Narendra Modi was made the BJP's campaign committee chairman, who was later made the prime ministerial candidate of NDA. Just after this split, Sharad Yadav relinquished his position as the NDA convenor. The JD(U) contested the election in Bihar in an alliance with the
Communist Party of India but they won only two seats out of total forty seats of Bihar while the BJP-
LJP alliance won 31 seats. Following poor performance in election,
Nitish Kumar resigned as
Chief Minister of Bihar and
Jitan Ram Manjhi sworn in as a new Chief Minister. When the trust vote was demanded by the BJP to prove majority in
Bihar Legislative Assembly, the RJD supported the JD(U) in the assembly on 23 May 2014 to pass the majority mark.
The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) On 29 December 2014, Kerala-based
Socialist Janata (Democratic) merged with the JD(U) with its leader
M.P. Veerendra Kumar, accepting the party flag from JD(U) leader
Nitish Kumar. This was an important milestone in bringing a pan-Indian appeal to the JD(U) which is largely limited to the state of
Bihar. On 9 May, MLA
Jitan Ram Manjhi was expelled from the JD(U) and he later founded the
Hindustani Awam Morcha along with 17 other dissent JD(U) MLAs. In the
2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election JD(U) contested the election in an
alliance with the RJD and Congress. It won 71 seats out of the 101 seats it contested and the alliance won 178 seats out the 243 seats in the assembly. Subsequently, Nitish Kumar again became the Chief Minister of Bihar. In the biennial elections to the
Rajya Sabha held in March 2016, the ruling
UDF of
Kerala state gave one seat to JD(U) Kerala State Unit President
M.P. Veerendra Kumar. In spite of having just 2 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly, the
Congress gave a berth to its ally.
Alliance with NDA On 26 July 2017 5 pm,
Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation as
Chief Minister of Bihar, ending 20-month-old
Mahgathbandhan (grand alliance) rule. The next day on 27 July 2017 10 am he again took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar with the support of
BJP. Same day evening, Kerala JD(U) chief
M.P. Veerendra Kumar announced the split of Kerala unit of the JD(U) from the party, due to Nitish Kumar led
Bihar unit joined hands with the BJP. On 28 July 2017, new NDA government won trust vote in Bihar assembly by 131 votes in favour and 108 against, four legislators did not vote.
Out of NDA On 9 August 2022, Nitish Kumar announced that the JD(U)'s alliance with the
BJP in the
Bihar Legislative Assembly was over. He further made a claim that the new government in Bihar, a coalition of nine parties including the
RJD and the
INC would be a "Mahagathgandhan 2.0."
Reorganisation after 2020 Assembly elections and other leaders of JDU during Rajya Sabha nomination of
Khiru Mahto. The JD(U), just like its parent
Samata Party, had the core support of
Kushwaha and
Kurmi caste, which emanated from the great rally organised in 1993 at
Gandhi Maidan,
Patna. In 2020 Assembly elections, the party performed badly, and its seats in
Bihar Legislative Assembly reduced to 43 from 75 in 2015 elections. The breakaway of the faction led by
Upendra Kushwaha, who founded
Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, was recognised as one of the principal reason behind reduction in support base of the party in many constituencies. In a bid to retain its support amongst its core vote base, the party made several organisational changes, like appointing
Ramchandra Prasad Singh as national president of the party and
Umesh Kushwaha as the state president. Meanwhile, it also tried to give effect to the merger of the Upendra Kushwaha led
RLSP with itself. The RLSP was formed as a result of a split in JD(U) in 2013. Immediately after the merger, Upendra Kushwaha was made president of parliamentary board of the party. On 20 February 2023, Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the post of president of parliamentary committee of JDU and membership of Bihar Legislative Council and formed another party named
Rashtriya Lok Morcha as a breakaway faction of JDU. However,
Umesh Kushwaha, who was re-elected to the post of party's state chief in November 2022, continued to serve party in that position for the second term.
2024 Lok Sabha elections In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, JDU was granted 16 seats against Bharatiya Janata Party's 17 seats and it contested in alliance with BJP and
Chirag Paswan led Lok Janashakti Party (Ram Vilas). It won 12 seats in this election and played an important role in the formation of the
Third Modi government. With this victory, JDU changed the narrative that it has been weakened over the time under the leadership of Nitish Kumar with latter's growing age and lack of a next generation of leaders in the party. This election also revealed JDU's hold and support base amongst the members of Extremely Backward Castes, which turned out to be the reason behind party's spectacular performance in the constituencies dominated by them. In order to consolidate its support base amongst the different caste groups, JDU appointed
Dileshwar Kamait, a member of Extremely Backward Caste as its leader of parliamentary party in
18th Lok Sabha,
Sanjay Kumar Jha was appointed as leader of parliamentary party in
Rajya Sabha after the 2024 general elections. Subsequently,
Lalan Singh and
Ram Nath Thakur were made union ministers in Third Modi government from the JDU.
2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly election In the
2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, JD(U) contested the election in an alliance with the BJP, HAM (S) and RLM. It won 85 seats out of the 101 seats it contested with the BJP emerging as the single largest party and winning 89 seats. The alliance won 202 seats out the 243 seats in the assembly. Subsequently, Nitish Kumar again became the Chief Minister of Bihar. After Kumar announced his pending resignation in order to contest the
2026 Rajya Sabha elections, his son
Nishant joined the JD(U) in March; this was seen as a departure from his previous policy of anti-dynasticism. ==Electoral performance==