Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) suffered a massive jolt Tuesday in Bihar. Five of RJD’s eight-member of the legislative council in Bihar quit the opposition party. They joined Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U). This move came even as Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, one of Rashtriya Janata dal’s founding members, resigned as the national vice-president.
Day of mayhem
It was a day of mayhem for the main opposition party. SM Qamar Alam, a national general secretary of the RJD, walked to the chamber of Vidhan Parishad Acting Chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh. He was accompanied by four others. They then tendered their resignations.
The other MLCs who resigned are Sanjay Prasad, Radha Charan Seth, Ranvijay Kumar Singh and Dlip Rai. The acting chairman said the five MLCs have been recognised as a separate group. The merger of the group into the JD(U) has been approved.
Founder member unhappy
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a former Union Minister is currently down with COVID-19 and admitted to AIIMS, Patna. He shot off a letter on the day to the party leadership. In the letter he conveyed his decision to step down as national vice-president. He said he was unhappy over the type of people being inducted into the RJD of late.
Singh is said to have been miffed over reports that Rama Singh, a mafia don-turned-politician is likely to join the RJD. Rama was formerly associated with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP. He had had defeated the RJD veteran in his pocket borough of Vaishali in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The party founded and headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav will no doubt be reeling from the effects of the resignations.