Chief minister Nitish Kumar plants a sapling at Kalyanbigha in Nalanda on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Kalyanbigha (Nalanda), Aug. 11: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today renewed his JD(U) membership in a noble way. He first planted an amla (Indian gooseberry) sapling, then filled the member renewal form and submitted it to the state party boss, Basistha Narayan Singh.

While doing so at his native village in Nalanda, about 40km from here, the chief minister pronounced the criteria for the party membership. “It is mandatory for a person to plant a sapling to become a JD(U) member. You also have to protect the sapling that you have planted,” he said.

The message was clear and loud: Nitish has decided to use what the JD(U) has christened as Green Bihar Campaign as an effective tool to increase his party’s acceptability in all sections of the society against his rivals still dwelling heavily on the conventional politics of striking the equations of castes and communities.

Behaving as a JD(U) cadre at the party’s function, Nitish paid Rs 5 to Singh as a token amount for his membership renewal and exhorted the workers to serve the society as a disciplined party member. He made no bones in accepting that the Green Bihar Campaign aimed at strengthening the party.

“It is a very special occasion for us. We have a big challenge of planting and protecting the trees to stay as the JD(U) cadre. But I am sure that our campaign will turn Bihar green besides strengthening our organisation. Our state party chief (Basistha) has informed me that we have planned to plant 50 lakh trees across the state,” he said.

Thousands of party workers and people from neighbouring Harnaut, Chandi and Bihar Sharif areas had gathered to see Nitish inaugurating the Green Bihar Campaign.

Nitish said: “Planting the trees is not an end in itself. The most important job is to protect them and keep them growing.”

That the drive is part of Nitish introducing “creativity” in politics became evident when he said: “It is another noble campaign after the signature campaign in which we procured 1.25 crore signatures in support of our demand for the special category status to Bihar.”