Union Minister R.C.P. Singh’s fate yet to be decided by top JD-U leadership

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Patna, May 16 (IANS) The top leadership of Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) is yet to finalise all its candidate for the Rajya Sabha, leaving the fate of Union Steel Minister R.C.P. Singh in limbo.

The upper house tenure of Singh, who is the sole JD-U representative in the Narendra Modi government, is ending on July 7 this year.

JD-U national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh on Monday announced the name of Anil Hegde as one of the Rajya Sabha candidates but the decision on another seat has not been taken yet.

Sources say that the top leadership of the JD-U, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lalan Singh, are not ready to send Singh to the upper house of the Parliament. When it comes to choosing the candidates for the Rajya Sabha, party leaders used to put the onus on Nitish Kumar, but he is not coming forward to take a decision now.

On Monday, Lalan Singh announced the name of Hegde as Rajya Sabha candidate of the party, for the seat that fell vacant after the death of King Mahendra.

The party has one seat under its quota but the way Nitish Kumar is staying away from this issue, it seems that he has given the charge to Lalan Singh to decide the fate of Singh.

Both have seen their relationship souring ever since Singh, who was then the JD-U President, projected himself for the cabinet berth during the second expansion of Narendra Modi government.

The party had given him the responsibility to negotiate with BJP, as it wanted two cabinet berths and two of minister of state level but Singh chose to become a minister himself.

On that occasion, Lalan Singh was also eyeing a cabinet berth in the Narendra Modi government.

After Singh became a Union Minister, Nitish Kumar had given the job of national President of the party to Lalan Singh.

For Singh, it would be interesting to know how many MLAs are supporting him. If he manages to show his power before top leadership, he may be in a position of bargain with Nitish Kumar and Lalan Singh.

However, at present, it does not look to be an easy task as it seems unlikely as any JD-U MLA would dare to go against Nitish Kumar and Lalan Singh.

–IANS
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