RCP Singh has been working with Nitish Kumar for years
Patna:
Ramchandra Prasad Singh, a member of the Rajya Sabha, has been chosen by Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to lead his party, Janata Dal United. The decision was formally made today in the party’s national executive, but according to sources, Kumar had communicated his desire to appoint him as the head of the JDU to senior leaders a few days ago.
By handing the party over to his closest confidant, Kumar has become unavailable to his ally BJP, whom he holds responsible for reducing his party’s number of seats to 43 by propping up Chirag Paswan’s LJP in the recent Bihar assembly elections. concluded, sources say. Singh will deal with the party’s affairs, including his dealings with the BJP.
The decision shows that all is not well in the ruling National Democratic Alliance in which the BJP has been playing the role of dominant partner since the state elections.
It is known that RCP Singh, a former Indian Administrative Service official from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is close to Nitish Kumar. He belongs to the same caste as the Chief Minister.
Mr. Singh has been working with Mr. Kumar for years. He was personal secretary to Mr. Kumar during his days as Minister of Railways. He became the chief secretary when Kumar became the chief minister in 2005.
In 2010, RCP Singh was nominated for the Rajya Sabha and has since been Kumar’s political emissary in the national capital, especially after the return of the JDU to the National Democratic Alliance in 2017.
Singh had played an important role in the formation of the JDU-BJP alliance for the 2019 general elections and the Bihar assembly elections.
The move comes days after six of the seven Janata Dal United lawmakers in Arunachal Pradesh defected to the ruling BJP.
The BJP said on Saturday that the MLAs were not poached and joined the party of their own free will. However, the opposition called the measure “humiliation” and challenged Kumar to break the alliance.
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