NEW DELHI: Former JD(U) national president RCP Singh on Saturday quit the party amid allegations of corruptions levelled against him and reports of a widening rift with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
This comes close on the heels of the party seeking an explanation from him on allegations of amassing vast wealth.
“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,” Bihar JD(U) chief Umesh Singh Kushwaha said in a letter to Singh, with which a copy of the written complaint against Singh by unnamed party workers was enclosed.
JD(U) workers had alleged that “huge property” has been amassed between 2013 and 2022 in the name of Singh and his family members.
Singh on his part has alleged “conspiracy” by those envious of him.
Party parliamentary board president Upendra Kushwaha said “It is not proper to disclose who had made the allegations. But seeking an explanation is in order.”
RCP Singh accepted nomination as a minister at the Centre, purportedly against the wishes of Nitish Kumar. He was recently denied another term in Rajya Sabha from Bihar, causing him to lose his Cabinet berth.
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.
The BJP was guarded in its response to the developments, calling it an internal matter of the JD(U).
However Bihar’s principal opposition party RJD was direct in slamming the JD(U).
“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.
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