RJD jolted by defections as 5 MLCs join Nitish Kumar’s JD (U)
PATNA: Ahead of Bihar elections, Lalu Prasad Yadav led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) received a major setback when five out of eight of its MLCs resigned and joined the JD-U, following the resignation of party’s national vice-president Dr. Raghuvans Prasad Singh, on Tuesday.
Dr. Raghuvans Prasad Singh has also resigned citing displeasure over the functioning of the party.
SM Qamar Alam, a national general secretary of the RJD walked to the chamber of acting chairman of the Vidhan Parishad Awadhesh Narain Singh and tendered his resignation along with four others. Sanjay Prasad, Radha Charan Seth, Ranvijay Kumar Singh and Dilip Rai are the other leaders who resigned along with Alam.
Meanwhile, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a former union minister has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for COVID-19 treatment. In a resignation he submitted to the party leadership, Prasad conveyed his displeasure over the ‘type of people’ being inducted into the RJD.
According to to the report , Dr Prasad is supposed to be miffed with reports of likely induction of Rama Singh, a mafia don-turned-politician who was previously associated with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP. Rama Singh had defeated Dr Prasad in 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Vaishali.
The resignation of five of eight MLCs, which is being viewed as a setback for Lalu Prasad Yadav-founded party ahead of the biennial elections for nine seats of the Legislative Council. The development comes just a day after a large number of disgruntled party leaders created ruckus in front of the residence of Rabri Devi.
The RJD will be fielding three names after the approval of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is currently in jail, serving the sentence in the fodder scam. While there are speculations that the party may give tickets to one candidate from upper caste, non-Yadav OBCs and the minorities, party workers have demanded that Uday Narain Rai alias Bhola babu be given the ticket.
Rai had given up his seat in 2015 assembly polls to facilitate the candidature of Tejashwi Yadav. Bihar goes to polls in a few months from now.
The Legastive Council elections in Bihar, which is scheduled to be held on July 7. The Vidhan Parishad Acting Chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh said the five MLCs have been recognised as a separate group, the merger of which into the JD(U) has been approved.
Interestingly, the MLCs who defected to the JD(U) do not face the anti-defection law as they form the two-third of the total MLCs of the RJD. The RJD has 8 members in the state’s Legislative Council.
The JD(U) with 21 MLCs is the single largest party in the 75-member Council which has an effective strength of 45. The BJP has 16 MLCs. The JD(U) and BJP jointly rule the state. Polling to fill nine Legislative Council seats will be held on July 6.
A letter about formal joining of the RJD MLCs was forwarded by chief whip of the JD(U) Reena Devi to the acting chairman of the Upper House of the state legislature. Last week, a former JD(U) MLC Javed Iqbal Ansari had joined the RJD.
After tendering their resignations, they called on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at the latter residence and came out accompanied by JD-U MP Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh. Ran Vijay Kumar Singh, who was said to be the closest with Lalu Prasad, told the media that it had become almost impossible to continue with the RJD with self-respect and that was the reason the MLCs opted to quit and join the JD-U.
“Performances of Nitish Kumar, mannerism, and his respect for fellow party leaders have impressed us to a great extent and now the result is before all of us”, he said. Welcoming the MLCs into the party, JD-U MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said: “We have welcomed them as they have desired to be part of JD-U. Our party doesn’t believe in for-for ke rajniti (politics based on the break up) but whenever anyone wishes to join JD-U, it’s decent to welcome all”. When asked, if the party will welcome Dr. Raghuvans Prasad Singh, Lallan Singh said: “Dr. Singh is one of the most respected leaders of Bihar and whatever he would like to do, would naturally be welcomed by all”.
Meanwhile, RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, after attending an emergency internal meeting of the party with Tejashawi Yadav, said JD-U for resorting to such kind of politics as there is a paucity of good leaders in the party.
“Let them (JD-U leaders) say what they want but the RJD will not face any kind of setback in the upcoming elections due to the resignation of it five MLCs. The people are now ready to give a befitting reply. Janata sab janti aur samjhti hai (And public know and understand everything)” he said. Singh also said that the MLCs who had ditched the party have exposed their ‘janus-faces” and political greed.
(With Agency Inputs ).
