Seen as Nitish Kumar’s ‘possible successor’, who is Manish Verma: IAS to JD(U) supremo’s aide to party fold

There has been a lot of buzz around Verma’s entry into the JD (U) amid the possibility of him being groomed as the party’s future leader. Verma, who had been actively engaged with the JD (U)’s organisational activities for over one year, formally joined the party in the presence of JD (U) working president and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and state water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary.

Verma played a key role for the JD(U)’s campaign during the recent Lok Sabha polls, during which he extensively toured all the 16 parliamentary constituencies the party contested. The JD(U) won 12 of these seats, emerging as a major ally of the Narenra Modi-led NDA government 3.0.

JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha welcoming Manish Verma to the party. (Express Photo)

Verma’s political ambition surfaced when he decided to take VRS from the IAS in his 40s. Like Nitish, Verma belongs to the Kurmi (OBC) community. He also shares the Nalanda connection with the CM. Though his family is originally from Nimchakbathani in the neighbouring Gaya belt, it has now been based in Biharsharif in Nalanda district, Nitish’s home turf, for many years. Verma’s father Dr Ashok Verma has been known as a prominent Biharsharif doctor.

Though Verma’s name has been doing the round as one of Nitish’s possible successors for a long time, he was not given a political position after his VRS. Instead, he was made a member of the Bihar Disaster Management Authority. In 2022, he took over as CM’s advisor (infrastructure). He has now resigned from all these posts before joining the JD (U).

On his new move, Verma said : “It is a very emotional moment for me. A small piece of paper of the JD (U) joining form made me as nervous as writing the UPSC exam papers. I was wondering how to fill column on my profession in the party joining form. It could not be a retired IAS officer. I wrote social service.”

Verma said he had worked as the collector in three Odisha districts, including the Maoist-affected Malkangiri district. He shifted to Bihar in 2012, where he got his first posting as the director in the state government’s social welfare department. Later, he became the district magistrate of Purnia and Patna.

JD (U) sources said Verma could be appointed the party’s national general secretary (organisation), a position former bureaucrat R C P Singh used to hold for a long time.

Verma is Nitish’s second bureaucrat pick for his party after R C P Singh, who had gone on to become the Rajya Sabha MP and Union minister before falling out with him in 2022.

Verma completed his primary education from a Biharsharif government school and later studied in a school in Patna. He did his B.Tech from the IIT, Delhi in Civil Engineering. He also worked with the Indian Oil Corporation before clearing the UPSC exam in his second attempt in 2000.