Estranged Nitish aide R.C.P. Singh floats own party

The former Union Minister said his party was looking forward to contesting the Bihar Assembly polls due next year

Former Union Minister R.C.P. Singh, who had to quit his cabinet berth after falling out of favour with JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, on Thursday (October 31, 2024) floated a new party, Aap Saabki Aawaz.

Talking to reporters here on the occasion, Mr. Singh said he chose the day for the launch as besides Deepavali, it was also the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.

Incidentally, Patel is seen as a cultural icon by the powerful OBC community Kurmi, to which both Mr. Kumar and Mr. Singh belong, and the latter profusely thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for celebrating the birth anniversary on a grand scale.

Mr. Singh, the bureaucrat-turned-politician, did not take any question and did not speak of his relations with the JD(U), which he had once headed but left in disgrace, and the BJP, which he joined a year ago, only to remain sidelined.

He, however, made it clear that his party was looking forward to contesting the Bihar assembly polls due next year and already had prospective candidates for "140 out of 243 seats".

Mr. Singh indirectly targeted Mr. Kumar by attacking the much-touted prohibition law in the State and highlighting the deterioration in government education institutions, "a far cry from our student days when we could crack the civil services, without reservation facility and with no coaching".

Hailing from the same Nalanda district as the Bihar Chief Minister, Mr. Singh was an Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, and on central deputation, he first came in contact with Mr. Kumar, then the railway minister.

After assuming power in Bihar in 2005, Mr. Kumar, who was visibly impressed with the administrative acumen of Mr. Singh, persuaded the latter to come to Bihar as his principal secretary.

In 2010, Mr. Singh took voluntary retirement and joined JD(U) which helped him enjoy two consecutive terms in the Rajya Sabha.

However, in 2021, his induction into the Narendra Modi cabinet did not go down well with Mr. Kumar, who had by then grown suspicious that his protégé was planning a sabotage.

Mr. Singh was made to step down as national president of JD(U) within months of becoming the party president, and denial of another Rajya Sabha term a year later caused him to give up the ministerial berth.

By that time JD(U) rank and file was agog with rumours that Mr. Singh was plotting a split at the BJP's instance and served with a show cause notice over allegations of financial misappropriations that caused him to quit the party.

A year later, he joined the BJP which had by that time been dumped by Mr. Kumar who chose to realign a year later.

Later, Mr. Kumar's JD(U) emerged as a crucial ally of the BJP which is now short of a majority in Lok Sabha.

Published - October 31, 2024 03:24 pm IST