Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has sought an explanation from its former national president R C P Singh on serious allegations of corruption levelled against him by some workers of the party.
State party president Umesh Singh Kushwaha has demanded a reply from Singh, a former union minister, whose fall from grace became evident when he was recently denied another term in Rajya Sabha from Bihar.
“You are well aware that our honourable leader (the CM) has been working with a policy of zero tolerance of corruption and he has remained untainted in his long political career,” Kushwaha said in the letter, with which a copy of the written complaint against Singh by unnamed party workers was enclosed.
The party workers have alleged that “huge property” has been amassed between 2013 and 2022 in the name of Singh and his family members.
JD(U) parliamentary board president Upendra Kushwaha, who was approached by journalists for comments, said “It is not proper to disclose who had made the allegations. But seeking an explanation is in order. The party will decide the future course of action based on his reply”.
Replying to a query, he said investigating agencies are “free to take suo motu cognizance of the matter which they must have come to know about through the media”.
However, when asked whether the development signalled the end of the road for the former party president, Kushwaha said “that is a political question. The party is not looking at the matter politically”.
A former Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, Singh had won Nitish Kumar’s trust while on central deputation in the late 1990s when his political mentor was a union minister. Singh had taken VRS in 2010 to join politics. Singh , who had served as the principal secretary to Kumar during his first five years as chief minister, was viewed as a blue-eyed boy of the de facto JD(U) leader and seamlessly rose in stature within the party which considered him for two back to back terms in Rajya Sabha.
Last year Kumar chose to step down as the party’s national president and Singh seemed to be on a roll, replacing his patron and clinching a cabinet berth at the Centre shortly afterwards.
However, it turned out that Singh accepted the ministerial post without the consent of Kumar who was opposed to BJP’s policy of “token representation” to allies.
The Bihar chief minister’s unhappiness became evident soon as Singh was asked to give up the party chief’s post. The writing was on the wall for all to see when denial of another Rajya Sabha term caused him to lose his cabinet berth and many party leaders perceived to be close to him were booted out.
The BJP, to which Singh had supposedly grown too close for JD(U)’s comfort, came out with a guarded response to the rumblings affecting its ally.
“It is JD(U)’s internal matter. The allegations against respectable RCP Singh ji is a matter of investigation. But we must also listen to what he has to say in response,” BJP spokesman Arvind Kumar Singh said in a statement.
The former union steel minister was reportedly away in his home district of Nalanda.
The principal opposition party RJD which has been vocal in raising allegations of ‘RCP tax’, an allusion to the disgraced leader allegedly getting a cut in government contracts when he used to call the shots, felt vindicated.
“The people of Bihar deserve a reply from JD(U) as to how this man had a free run for so long. If his misdeeds had tacit approval of his bosses, it is deplorable. If he kept higher ups in the dark, then it is a poor reflection on their wisdom”, said state RJD president Jagadanand Singh.
