Will Bihar CM Nitish Kumar send RCP Singh to Rajya Sabha again?

PATNA: Will Bihar CM and JD(U)’s de-facto leader Nitish Kumar send Union steel minister RCP Singh to the Rajya Sabha for third consecutive term? The million-dollar question is doing the rounds in Bihar political circles these days.
RCP’s second term in the Rajya Sabha is expiring on July 7 and if he is not renominated to the Rajya Sabha, he would have to resign as a minister in the Narendra Modi government. RCP is the only central minister from JD(U).
The speculations about sour relationship between RCP and Nitish are rife since Friday night when both attended a wedding ceremony at Ara, but JD(U) leaders there noticed that the usual bonhomie between the two were missing.
“Wedding ceremony of the CM’s security aide Harendra Singh’s son was organised near Ara on Friday. RCP reached there earlier. When Nitish arrived, both the leaders sat on the same three-seater sofa, but building construction minister Ashok Choudhary was asked to sit between the two,” a JD(U) leader present there told TOI on Saturday. Nitish and RCP didn’t talk, he said.
That has sparked speculations that RCP might be dropped this time. The JD(U) insiders say the cordial relationship between the two started souring in July, 2021 when RCP, who was authorised by Nitish, failed to make a hard bargain with BJP for four ministerial berths in the Modi cabinet and, instead, accepted only one ministerial berth for himself. RCP was then the JD(U) national president.
“Nitish wanted at least two cabinet berths -- one for RCP and another for Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh. Nitish also wanted at least two junior berths for Purnia MP Santosh Kushwaha and Rajya Sabha member Ramnath Thakur. But RCP took oath as the only JD(U) minister on July 7 last year. Resultantly, RCP was asked to quit the party president’s post within a month and Lalan replaced him as the JD(U) chief on July 31, 2021,” a JD(U) leader recalled.
Nitish also did not like RCP praising PM Modi for his induction in the Union cabinet. Even while Nitish was campaigning for caste census across the country, RCP, being a minister in the Modi cabinet, did not lobby for the cause.
On Friday, JD(U) legislators and senior leaders authorised Nitish to choose the party’s lone candidate for the forthcoming biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. As per the JD(U) strength in the Bihar assembly, it could win only one of the five Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant from Bihar.
However, JD(U) leaders close to RCP claim that the two leaders know each other very closely for the last 24 years. RCP has served as Nitish’s personal secretary when the latter was Union minister. When Nitish became Bihar CM in November 2005, he chose RCP (then a UP-cadre IAS officer) as his principal secretary. “It is hard to believe that RCP is not in the good book of Nitish. It will not be proper to comment on their personal bonding. We still believe that RCP will be sent to the Rajya Sabha for a third term,” said a JD(U) MLA, considered close to RCP.
The biennial election to five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar is to be held on June 10. Nomination papers would be filed from May 24 to 31.