Bihar elections: Setback for RJD as party veteran Raghuvansh Prasad Singh quits

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Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has quit the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), in a big blow to the party that is looking to make a comeback in Bihar when it votes for a new assembly later this year.

The 74-year-old Singh, a close aide of RJD chief Lalu Yadav, resigned as the vice-president in June, unhappy with the way the party was being run.

“After Jannayak Karpuri Thakur’s demise, I stood with you for 32 years, but not now. I have great affection for party leaders and activists. I am sorry,” Singh, who is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at New Delhi’s AIIMS, said in a hand-written letter to Lalu Prasad.

Singh, said sources, was unhappy over the talk of former Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) MP Rama Kishore Singh joining the RJD.

Both Raghuvansh Prasad and Rama Kishore are Rajputs and bitter rivals, sources said. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Rama Kishore had defeated Raghuvansh Prasad from Vaishali

Raghuvansh Prasad is likely to join Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), they said. The day he resigned as the vice-president, five RJP members of the legislative council (MLCs) left the party to join the ruling JD-U.

Bihar is one of the few states in the country that also has a legislative council, or an upper House.

The JD (U) was in a tie-up with the RJD but Kumar broke the alliance after a case of corruption was registered against his deputy and Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi. Kumar later joined hands with the BJP to continue as the Bihar chief minister.

“Raghuvansh Prasad’s resignation is the last nail in the RJD’s coffin. It was bound to happen given the way he was being treated in RJD,” JDU spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said.

Rama Singh’s induction into RJD looked imminent after he met Lalu Prasad in June. The induction has been kept on hold but Singh says he will join the RJD.

Earlier this month, Singh, who quit LJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket for the Lok Sabha election, met Tejashwi, who in August failed to convince Raghuvansh Prasad to return as the party vice-president.