‘R.C.P. Singh failed to negotiate a seat sharing deal with BJP in UP.’
New Delhi: After failing to forge an alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the differences in the Janata Dal (United) have come out in the open, with a large section of leaders questioning party leader and Union Minister for Steel, Ramchandra Prasad Singh failing to negotiate a seat sharing arrangement with the BJP in the state. Sources within the JDU confirmed to The Sunday Guardian that the party leadership was not happy with the role played by R.C.P. Singh.
A party insider, who is privy to the developments said, “If you connect the dots it is evident that R.C.P. Singh has hurt the party in recent times. Nitish Kumar had given the responsibility to him to negotiate with the BJP during the second expansion of the Narendra Modi Council of Ministers last year. We wanted two Cabinet Ministers and two State Ministers, but Singh bargained for just one Cabinet post for himself under the JDU quota, which angered the leadership. Previously, Nitish Kumar had rejected the BJP’s offer of symbolic representation. Look at Singh’s position on caste census and special status, it is not in accordance with the party line.”
Announcing the first list of candidates of the party for the Uttar Pradesh polls, JDU national president, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh publicly said that the delay in announcement of candidates for UP was due to R.C.P Singh.
The cold war in JDU has been going on for some time as the party president sidelined R.C.P. Singh and his lieutenants within the organisational structure, which has been dominated by the group for the last four-five years. Even in the recently reconstituted Janata Dal (United)’s North East Executive Council (NEEC), R.C.P. Singh was not included. NECC was the first committee reconstituted by the new president last year.
It is an important committee, which looks after the working of the party in the region as states of the Northeast like Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh are important for the party’s national ambitions. JDU won seven Assembly seats out of 15 it contested in Arunachal Pradesh in the last Assembly elections and became the second largest party in the state. The North East Executive Council (NEEC), the sub-group within the party was formed in 2018 when Nitish Kumar was the party president. In the new committee, Lalan Singh had appointed JDU national general secretary and party in-charge for northeastern states, Afaque Ahmad Khan, national general secretary and Bihar’s Water Resource Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, Member of Parliament from Jhanjharpur, Bihar, Ram Prit Mandal, along with the party’s state presidents from Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.
Party leaders are tight-lipped on the issue, claiming that everything is fine. Talking to The Sunday Guardian from Patna, JDU’s chief spokesperson and Bihar Legislative Council member from Patna Graduates constituency, Neeraj Kumar said, “Our party’s unanimous leader is Nitish Kumar. There is no question of any kind of conflict in the party. Whosoever is appointed as party president gets a free hand to strengthen the organisation and plays an active role in showcasing the governance model of our leader. There is nothing new in fighting the polls independently. Our alliance with the BJP is primarily in Bihar. We have fought elections in other states independently in the past also. In UP also we have fought the elections in 2012 and 2017.”