Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, December 27
R C P Singh, the former principal secretary to the Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar on Sunday took over as the new president of Janata Dal United (JDU).
He would replace Nitish Kumar who was National President of JDU since April, 2016 after removal of Sharad Yadav.
Nitish Kumar made the announcement of his party successor at the national conference of JDU held at Karpoori Thakur auditorium on Beerchand Patel road. Nitish said since he believed in one man, one post principle, he had decided to quit the party post.
He named RCP Singh as the new Party President. The motion to appoint Singh as new president was instantly approved by the national council members.
RCP Singh, an IAS of 1984 batch (UP) was secretary to Nitish Kumar when he was railways minister and when Nitish became chief minister in 2005, he was appointed principal secretary. Later, Nitish inducted him into JDU and got him elected to Rajya Sabha in 2015.
He was made Secretary General of the party five years ago. RCP is the true successor of Nitish Kumar. For, he belongs to the Chief Minister’s Kurmi caste and hails from his home district of Nalanda. One of his daughters is an IPS officer and was in controversy at Munger from where she was shifted on the orders of the Election Commission.
Nitish ignored the claims of party veteran K C Tyagi , who is also principal secretary general of the party and Bashistha Narain Singh, state JDU president, who were also aspiring for the top party post.
With his appointment as the national president of JDU, R C P Singh has little hope of being inducted into the union cabinet. Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan and Santosh Kushwaha, party MPs may be accommodated in the union ministry, party sources indicated here.
