New Delhi: Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who just days earlier had left the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a party that he had been a founding member of, has passed away. He was 74.
On Saturday, Singh had fallen critically ill and was put on a ventilator at AIIMS, Delhi, after developing post-COVID-19 complications.
He had resigned from the primary membership of the RJD on Thursday and followed it up with an open letter, a day later, addressed to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s arch rival and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, triggering speculation on his future move.
A loyalist of the RJD supremo, Singh resigned from the post of the national vice-president after rumours emerged that Lok Janshakti Party leader Rama Singh, his rival in Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency who had defeated him in the 2014 election, would be joining the party.
Also read: Bihar: What Raghuvansh Prasad’s Resignation Means For RJD
Singh’s resignation had forced RJD to hold Rama Singh’s entry into the party and although he did not give up the primary membership at that time, he stayed away from the RJD’s day to day affairs which was attributed, in part, to his ill-health.
On Thursday, his hand-written note addressed to Prasad declaring that he has had enough went viral on the social media.
On the same day, the RJD supremo sent a letter to Singh from Ranchi, making an emotional appeal to his companion for over three decades not to leave the party.
We will talk once you are well. You are not going anywhere: RJD leader Lalu Yadav in a letter to Raghuvansh Prasad Singh
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had resigned from the party, earlier today and is currently admitted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. pic.twitter.com/wGu68MTsCJ
— ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2020
On Friday, Singh wrote another letter from hospital, this time addressed to Nitish Kumar.
Often called the architect of the MGNREGA scheme, which was floated when he was the Union minister for rural development, Singh has been in political wilderness for some time, having lost two consecutive elections in 2014 and 2019 from Vaishali which he has represented in the Lok Sabha a record five times.
His relations with Tejashwi Yadav, younger son and heir apparent of Lalu Prasad, turned sour when he started pitching for Nitish Kumar’s return to the Grand Alliance helmed by the RJD, after the party received its worst-ever drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls last year.
(With PTI inputs)