Patna: Denying the Rajya Sabha ticket to lone union minister RCP Singh from JDU was not surprising since there were enough indications that Singh would not be retained by party boss Nitish Kumar. Once a close confidante to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was the second-in-command of the party, Singh had shifted his loyalties to BJP over JDU ever since he became a minister in the cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nitish chose Kheeru Mahto, the Jharkhand state unit president of the party as the Rajya Sabha candidate who belongs to the Kurmi caste. Moreover, the kind of suspense Nitish had created for the past one week, gave more than a clear message that Singh would not be renominated to the upper house.
The 24 year old relation between Nitish and Singh will not be the same anymore after Singh was also given a cold shoulder by JDU and shown the exit door by the party. Having a long association with Nitish since the time of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, RCP was once his principal secretary. In 2010 RCP had taken the VRS, and the same year he was nominated to Rajya Sabha. There was a sense of feeling among the top JDU leaders that Singh was giving more time to the BJP than his own party JDU. His proximity with the saffron party has cost him the Rajya Sabha ticket for the third time.
The crucial question that still remains, revolves around Singh's future in the party and how he will cope with the present scenario. As per the rule, one has to be a member of either the upper house or lower house within six months from the taking oath. Therefore in Singh's case, if he fails to be nominated from the upper house within six months from the date his tenure ends (July 7), he will have to resign.
Asked about whether he will resign from the cabinet or not, Singh said that he will discuss this with the PM. “It's a prerogative of the Prime Minister to allow me or not as a cabinet minister. I will meet him and discuss this. However if the party (JDU) asks me to resign, I will do it within a second,” Singh stressed. Singh also emphasised that he has not done anything to disappoint anyone.
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“Whatever I have said till now were the words of our leader Nitish ji. I have always followed whatever he has asked me to do. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Nitish ji who gave me so many opportunities. I was the JDU president, and general secretary of the party apart from being a Rajya Sabha member and now I am a minister. All because of Nitish ji,” Singh said.
Singh was speaking to the media for the first time outside this residence after he was denied the Rajya Sabha ticket. He stressed that he worked hard to strengthen the party at the booth level and it was because of him that JDU has become so strong that party workers are visible at the booth level today. He also said that he will continue working for the organisation. Singh however rejected the proportionate theory of Nitish Kumar in Modi's cabinet and said that 'it was BJP's generosity to offer us one seat in the union cabinet'.
Soon after the formation of the Narendra Modi government in 2019, Nitish was offered one cabinet berth. However, the CM had rejected the offer terming it a symbolic representation. He had stressed upon proportional representation of his party. Later in 2021, however, Nitish had accepted the old offer when RCP was the cabinet minister. “BJP has full majority in the Lok Sabha and they do not need any support. If anyone talks about proportional representation, it is useless. I will not name anyone. If BJP has offered one cabinet berth to us, it's a big thing,” Singh said.
Moreover, Singh also rejected Nitish's claim of projection as the PM candidate, saying that JDU does not have enough numbers. When asked whether Nitish can be the PM candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Singh laughed and said, “To become a PM, one needs 273 seats in the Parliament. So far we have won a maximum of 20 seats and at present, we have only 16. A third front does not exist at the moment.”
Singh pointed out that he has always worked with the party honestly and has not done anything to disappoint anyone. He urged JDU state president Umesh Kushwaha to increase the Prakosth cell in the party instead of decreasing it. Meanwhile, BJP retained Satish Chandra Dubey and denied a ticket to sitting Rajya Sabha member Gopal Narayan Singh and chose Shambu Saran Patel who comes from the Dhanuk community which constitutes around 5 per cent of the total vote share in the state.
