Rajya Sabha polls: Will Union steel minister RCP Singh be as lucky as Suresh Prabhu?

NEW DELHI: The fate of Union steel minister Ramchandra Prasad (RCP) Singh hangs in the balance as his Rajya Sabha term ends next month and his renomination to the upper house is uncertain.
Singh was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a JD(U) ticket for the first time in June 2010. His second term expires next month. Sources in the JD(U) said the party is not keen to renominate him for the third time to the upper house.
Singh met party leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Thursday. The outcome of the meeting is not yet known.
If the JD(U) does not renominate Singh, he may continue as a minister for six months. Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be forced to relieve him from his cabinet.
In another scenario, the BJP may co-opt Singh and nominate him to the Rajya Sabha from its quota. However, this is also unlikely to happen because BJP would not like to antagonise its coalition partner JD(U) with which it is governing Bihar.
However, former Union minister Suresh Prabhu, who faced a similar situation in 2014, was lucky. His former party, the Shiv Sena, opposed his inclusion in Modi ministry. Despite that, he was made to switch over to the BJP and become a Union minister.
But RCP Singh may not be as lucky as Suresh Prabhu.
A former IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, Singh was considered close to Nitish Kumar. He was appointed as principal secretary to Kumar after the latter became the state CM in 2005.
He resigned from the civil services before he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2010. He was first made the JD(U) general secretary and was later elevated to the party president’s post in December 2010 as he became Kumar close confidant.
He stepped down as party president on July 31, 2021 after he was inducted as the Union steel minister on July 7 the same year.
Singh is believed to have joined the Modi cabinet against Kumar’s wishes and this caused rift between the two. Subsequently, Singh slowly drew close to the BJP, much to the chagrin of the Bihar CM.
The latest political developments have reached a stage where the JD(U) is not favourably disposed towards renominating Singh to the Rajya Sabha.
Biennial election to the Rajya Sabha is slated to be held in June. The sources said the BJP is also unlikely to risk nominating him to the upper house as it needs the support of the JD(U) in the forthcoming elections of president and vice-president. Moreover, it would not like to rock the boat in Bihar.
In such a scenario, Singh may have to quit the Modi government.
RCP Singh and Suresh Prabhu’s cases compared
The story of Singh and Suresh Prabhu is similar to some extent.
Prabhu was a four-term Shiv Sena MP from Rajapur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra between 1996 and 2009. He was picked up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a Union minister in November 2014.
However, the Shiv Sena was against the choice. The ties between the Sena and the BJP had started turning bitter over distribution of seats for the Maharashtra assembly election which was held in October 2014.
With both the parties failing to arrive at an understanding, the 25-year-old alliance between the two broke apart. The two parties contested the election separately.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 122 of the total 288 assembly seats. It was followed by the Sena which was victorious on 63 seats. The two old allies entered into a post-poll arrangement to govern Maharashtra. However, the seeds of bitterness between the two had already been sown.
Later that year, the Shiv Sena vetoed the BJP’s plan to induct Prabhu in the Modi ministry. Prabhu quit the Shiv Sena to join the BJP before being appointed as a cabinet minister. The BJP also nominated him to the Rajya Sabha.
He remained a Union minister till Modi’s first stint as PM. He is still a BJP MP from Andhra Pradesh in the upper house. His second term expires next month.
However, RCP Singh may not be as lucky as Suresh Prabhu and may not be able to switch from JD(U) to the BJP and get nominated to the Rajya Sabha.