BIHAR RJD CHIEF SAYS NO INFO ON ‘MOVE TO REPLACE HIM’

PATNA: RJD’s state president Jagdanand Singh, who has been lying low his son Sudhakar Singh’s unceremonious exit from Nitish Kumar’s cabinet last month, has said he has no information that his party is looking for his replacement, contrary to speculation that has been rife in Bihar’s capital Patna.

“I am not aware of any changes being planned in the party. I cannot comment on it,” Jagdanand Singh said, adding that he had spoken to ailing RJD chief Lalu Prasad on several occasions in the past few weeks.

He said he was very much playing his role in the party and would continue to do so, adding that he himself was unwell and had visited Delhi and Patna in recent days for his medical treatment.

Sudhakar Singh quit as agriculture minister on October 3, after making repeated allegations of corruption in the agriculture department.

Since then, Jagdanand Singh has stopped coming to the state RJD office. Later, he had said he had taken a holiday and was resting in his village.

Meanwhile, an RJD leader considered close to party chief Lalu Prasad said a new state unit president was likely. “It might happen before Laluji leaves for Singapore for medical treatment on November 24,” he said, pleading anonymity.

RJD insiders said former minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Shiv Chandra Ram were among the front runners for the top party post in the state.

Siddiqui, however, told reporters, “As of now, Jagdanand Singh is the state president. I feel he would continue to be.”

Lalu to go to Singapore for kidney transplant

Ailing Prasad, currently staying at his eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti’s residence in New Delhi, will leave for Singapore for kidney transplant on November 24, RJD leaders said. Prasad’s second daughter Rohini Archarya would donate her kidney to him as her blood group matched.