Patna, Feb. 4: Sanjay Jha, considered a favourite "courtier" of chief minister Nitish Kumar for long, has resigned as the member of the state planning board's state-minister rank position.

Sanjay's resignation is being interpreted as the first manifestation of the ripples in the circles of power around Nitish after Prashant Kishor's emergence as the chief minister's main poll strategist and now a key strategist in implementing Nitish's governance agenda as his advisor. Speculations are rife that Sanjay might quit the JDU too.

Contacted, Sanjay said: "I am not going to quit the JDU. My resignation as the planning board member is old news. Nothing much should be read in it."

A Dal source, however, said: "Sanjay and many others who worked closely with Nitish in the run-up to the latter's decision to break the alliance with the BJP were feeling slighted after Nitish preferred Prashant Kishor as his key strategist over them."

The exact date and time of Sanjay's resignation is not known. But it is believed that he might have demitted his office after the Nitish-led cabinet appointed Kishor as the chief minister's advisor.

A product of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Sanjay, originally belonged to the BJP. He came to Patna in 2006-07 to operate as the key link between Nitish and Arun Jaitley, arguably the most vital BJP leader before the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah era had dawned and the JDU-BJP alliance had captured power in the state.

To begin with, Sanjay became a BJP MLC, getting a decent bungalow on Hardinge Road. Over the years, Sanjay earned Nitish's confidence, emerging as what the operators in the internal power circles described as his "favoured courtier and close confidante".

In fact, Sanjay gave a big jolt to the BJP by switching sides to the JDU and choosing Nitish as his leader over his BJP mentors, including Jaitley in July 2012, a year ahead of Nitish dumping the BJP after the latter projected Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

Sanjay would move like a shadow of Nitish in the latter's many yatras (marches) and political meetings.

The JDU fielded Sanjay as its candidate against the BJP's Kirti Azad in Darbhanga. Sanjay was among many others in the JDU who lost the elections to their BJP counterparts in the Narendra Modi-led wave in the 2014 general election.

But Sanjay stood by Nitish, working as one of his close aides even when the latter was engaged in a bitter tussle with Jitan Ram Manjhi to regain his chief ministerial position ahead of the 2015 elections.

It was, probably, at this stage, Kishor, earlier Narendra Modi's election strategist, switched over to the Nitish camp. Kishor's strategy paid off with the JDU-led Grand Alliance registering a phenomenal victory over the BJP-led NDA in the Assembly polls. Cementing his position further, Kishor has become an advisor to Nitish, a cabinet minister-rank position, calling the shots in governance too.

The developments are said to have put a dampener on Sanjay and many others, who enjoyed position of prominence around the chief minister earlier.