Patna: After Nagaland and Manipur in the Northeast, the ruling JDU has started work to expand the party in other northeastern states like Tripura, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

From June 12 to 21, special drives will be conducted in these three states and meetings will be held in the state capital.

JDU national secretary Sanjay Verma said that the stature of Nitish was climbing up every passing day and his popularity was also increasing because of his clean image and honest personality.

"We want to expand the vision of our leader, Nitish ji, through the expansion of the party after we performed well in Nagaland where our leader is a minister in the government. We also did well in the Karnataka Assembly polls though we did not win the seat. But slowly and gradually, our party is expanding," Verma said.

Verma added that with the motive of expanding the party, a proper chart had been prepared in which meetings would be organised from June 12 to 14 in Agartala, June 17-18 in Itanagar and in Shillong on June 21. Verma said he will be present in all the meetings in the state capital.

Asked about not achieving much in states like Gujarat, Delhi municipal polls and Karnataka polls, Verma replied: "There was time when the BJP had just two members in the Lok Sabha and today, the scenario is totally different. In a similar way, we are trying hard to make our base in other states and we will succeed. There is no harm in trying."

To expand the party, JDU president Nitish Kumar on Saturday accorded the approval for the constitution of the North East Executive Council (NEEC) of the JDU with headquarters in Guwahati.

NEEC has members like Senchumol Lotha, the president of JDU Nagaland as it chairman, Hangkhanpao Thaithul, the president of JDU Manipur as member-secretary, JDU secretary Afaque Ahmed Khan as coordinator, JDU secretary Sanjay Verma as special invitee and NE general secretary Harivansh as ex officio member.

Nitish has nominated three members for NEEC - G. Kaito Aye (minister in Nagaland government), K.C. Tyagi (national secretary-general) and RCP Singh (general secretary of JDU).

The president of the other northeastern states will be member of NEEC as and when their own state unit of the JDU is formed respectively.