Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a senior RJD leader, resigned from Lalu Yadav’s party on Thursday.
Patna:
One day after leaving Lalu Yadav’s RJD party, former union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh wrote to Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar, requesting the extension of MGNREGA benefits to the agricultural sector, a step that is seen as an attempt by the veteran leader. socialist approaching failure. JD (U).
In a letter to Nitish Kumar, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, one of his most scathing critics while at RJD, said that the MGNREGA law needed to be amended and its benefits extended to the agricultural sector.
Since its launch in 2006, the rural employment guarantee scheme has aimed to provide livelihood security in rural areas by guaranteeing at least 100 days of minimum wage employment, mainly in the construction of durable assets such as roads, canals and ponds.
Several senior ministers have often sought to extend the benefits of the plan to the agricultural sector.
In his letter posted on Facebook, the former Union minister also asked Nitish Kumar to facilitate the return of the Lord Buddha of Kabul’s begging bowl. He also demanded that the prime minister unfurl the national flag in Vaishali every Republic Day.
Vaishali is the parliamentary constituency Singh represented for five consecutive terms before his defeat in 2014.
Singh had resigned from the RJD, the main opposition party in Bihar, on Thursday, prompting speculation about his joining the ruling JD (U). However, RJD Supreme Lalu Yadav, who was serving a prison sentence in four cases of forage scams in Ranchi, had rejected his resignation.
“For four decades, we have discussed political, social and even family matters together. You recover soon and we will discuss again. You will not go anywhere, do you understand?” Lalu Yadav had written to Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Thursday, after the The latter made it clear that he was leaving the party.
Singh, who is admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi, due to post-COVID-19 complications, has not yet made it clear whether he will stay at RJD or switch to JD (U), the Press Trust of India news agency reported. .
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s departure from the RJD is being seen as a major “psychological setback” for the party, as a sizeable portion of Rajputs still back the opposition party while all other upper castes vote for the BJP or Congress. .
Singh, who as the Union Minister of Rural Development put the NREGA bill to the test, urged Nitish Kumar to introduce an ordinance to amend the relevant law to extend its benefits to the agricultural sector.
He insisted that the ordinance be brought before the model code of conduct for the elections.
Assembly elections are likely to be held in Bihar in October-November, and once the model code comes into force, no political decision can be taken.
The JD (U), which has already made it clear that its doors are open to the veteran socialist leader, was willing to accept his suggestions.
“The issues you have raised in your letter to the Chief Minister are certainly worthy of consideration,” said JD (U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad.
“One thing is clear: Raghuvansh Babu was humiliated and insulted at RJD and swallowed it during his long stint in the match that he suckled with his blood and sweat,” said Rajiv Ranjan Prasad.
He said Singh’s decision to resign from the RJD had left a “big hole in the party’s sunken ship.”
Before Singh, seven MLAs and five MLCs, including those from the Yadav caste and Muslims, the bedrock of the RJD base of support, had resigned and joined the JD (U).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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