Double blow to RJD: Party vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh resigns, five MLCs defect to JD(U) ahead of Legislative Council polls

In a major blow to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of the Bihar Legislative Council polls, party national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh resigned from his post on Tuesday, 22 June. According to news agency ANI, Singh is currently admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna after being tested positive for COVID-19.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has resigned from his post. He is currently admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna as has tested positive for #COVID19. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/AXW0QD4fFD

— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2020

According to PTI, Singh has been upset over reports that Rama Singh, a mafia don-turned-politician who was formerly associated with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP and had defeated the RJD veteran in his pocket borough of Vaishali in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, might join the party. He sent a letter to the party leadership conveying his decision to resign from the post as he was unhappy over the type of people being inducted into the RJD off late, the report added. Singh, a staunch supporter of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, is said to be one of the founding members of the RJD. According to reports, five sitting RJD Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) also joined the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. The MLCs who have switched to JD(U) are Radha Charan Shah, Sanjay Prasad, Dilip Rai, Ranvijay Kumar Singh, and SM Qamar Alam, a national general secretary of the RJD. With this, the RJD, which had eight MLCs is now left with mere three members in the state Legislative Council,  a report in Hindustan Times said. The MLCs who have joined JD(U) do not face the anti-defection law as they constitute the two-third of the total number of MLCs of the RJD. The report said that a letter about the formal joining of the RJD MLCs was being sent by chief whip of the JD(U) Reena Devi to acting chairman of the legislative council. The Legislative Council poll in Bihar for nine seats is scheduled on 6 July. With RJD MLCs defecting to the JD(U), the ruling party in the state now has 21 MLCs. JD(U) is now the single largest party in the 75-member council, which presently has a strength of 46 as 29 seats are lying vacant. The BJP has 16 MLCs in the council and also has the support of an independent MLC. With inputs from agencies