NEW DELHI: Former Union Minister Ramchandra Prasad ( RCP) Singh, who quit the Janata Dal-United ( JDU) joined the Bharathiya Janatha Party ( BJP) on Thursday. He quit JDU after the party sought an explanation for the allegations of corruption levelled against him.
RCP Singh joined the BJP in the presence of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and National General Secretary Arun Singh at the headquarters in New Delhi.
After joining the BJP, RCP Singh took a jibe at Bihar CM by calling him 'Palti mar'. Singh said, " Nitish Kumar is not looking at Bihar as a CM. Nitish Kumar was a PM (palti maar), is a PM (palti maar) and will remain a PM(palti maar)."
"He got the mandate for the welfare of Bihar, but what he is doing now. One day he is in Odisha, another day in Jharkhand and today he is in Maharashtra. He is now talking about opposition unity, but main question is, who is your leader? How can you expect Opposition unity without any leader?" RCP Singh questioned. He had also said that Nitish Kumar will not become PM in any of his seven lives and accused Nitish Kumar of compromising political ethics with RJD for the sake of remaining in power in the state.
Singh's relationship with Nitish Kumar turned sour after he accepted the ministerial position without the CM’s consent, and over his perceived closeness to BJP. Singh had also been asked to give up the party chief’s post. According to sources, Nitish Kumar was “unhappy with RCP Singh ever since he joined the central government without his consent”.
Singh resigned from JDU after an explanation was sought by a party from him on corruption charges on all the immovable property registered in the names of his family members from 2013 to 2022. Singh is a former officer of the 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of UP cadre, who served as principal secretary of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar also for 7 years prior to becoming the national president of JD-U.