Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s principal secretary and UP-cadre IAS officer Ram Chandra Prasad Singh on Monday resigned from the civil service to enter the Rajya Sabha as a nominee of Bihar’s ruling JD(U).
Mr Singh, an influential bureaucrat known as RCP, was awarded the political position due to his closeness and loyalty to Kumar. Instrumental in conception and implementation of several policies of Bihar’s JD(U)-BJP government, Mr Singh was also the original reason behind Mr Kumar’s ongoing feud with his former friend Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, a JD(U) MP who resigned as the party’s state president recently.
In choosing to send the 1984-batch IAS officer to the RS, Mr Kumar also scuttled JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav’s plans. Sources say Mr Yadav was lobbying for UP-cadre IAS officer K.C. Tyagi’s nomination to the upper house. Mr Singh’s name had been doing the rounds on the eve of last year’s LS polls as a JD(U) candidate from Nalanda, Mr Kumar’s home district and former constituency. But, sources said, Mr Singh was asked to wait as the state government was keen to benefit from his services for some more time.
Close relations between Mr Kumar and Mr Singh date back to the time when Mr Kumar was the Union minister of agriculture, surface transport and railways. Sources said both men knew each other for two decades. “He was the man Nitishjee trusted more than anybody else in both the government and the party,” said a senior JD(U) legislator.
JD(U)’s Bihar president Vijay Chaudhary said Mr Singh, as a Rajya Sabha member from the JD(U), would be “an asset for the party in national politics”. The JD(U) had previously nominated senior IAS officer N.K. Singh to the Rajya Sabha.
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Sonia nod to Satish for RS seat
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has approved the name of Capt. Satish Sharma, a sitting MP, as the party candidate for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
She has also approved the name of Naseeb Pathan as the party nominee for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council elections.
The Congress’ strength in the UP Assembly is 22. But this is not sufficient for a victory of Capt. Sharma as he has to get additional 15 to 16 votes.