Ex-Nitish aide RCP Singh buries hatchet with Prashant Kishor, merges outfit with Jan Suraaj

Seen to be fierce rivals during their stints in the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), the two leaders were all praise for each other on Sunday. “I was fascinated by how the JSP has been speaking about issues that concern the common man… We are committed to work towards making Bihar beautiful and prosperous,” Singh said as he donned the JSP’s yellow scarf and was welcomed into the party by Kishor himself in Patna.

Singh, an OBC Kurmi face from Nalanda, had also been the former national president of the JD(U). He is likely to help the JSP consolidate a section of the Kurmi community – known as a core voter base of Nitish – in its favour. “RCP Singh’s induction is likely to boost the JSP’s prospects among the Kurmis but our biggest gain would be his organisational skills at a time when Kishor is trying to cobble up a social combination from all possible communities,” JSP sources said.

Currently, the ruling NDA is seen to largely rely on Nitish and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) to garner the support of the Kurmi-Koeri (Luv-Kush) voter base, which collectively make up 7% of the electorate in Bihar.

On his part, Kishor said Singh would not be just a worker but a key leader of the party. Asked if Singh would be the JSP’s chief ministerial candidate, he quipped, “At least now you have started believing that we can form the government. It is good to see our CM candidate is being discussed.”

Saying that Singh, a former bureaucrat, brought with him years of experience in administration as well as politics, Kishor went on to recall how he had worked with the former “much before” RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Kumar came together ahead of the 2015 Assembly polls. “Nitish always said he abhorred the three Cs – crime, corruption and communalism. Now, he is not the same person… but we still respect Nitish Kumar, the idea. RCP Singh is a great addition not just to the JSP but also to the great common cause that binds us together,” he said.

Reminded that Singh had earlier said that Kishor “had not contributed anything to Bihar”, the JSP founder said, “RCP Singh was right in saying that as I started contributing to the state only from May 2022, when I started the Jan Suraaj campaign.”

A 1984-batch IAS officer with 28 years of administrative experience, Singh first came into contact with Nitish during the latter’s stint as Railways Minister between 2001 and 2004. As Nitish assumed the CM’s chair in 2005, Singh was brought to Bihar the following year as a civil servant.

Once considered as a key Nitish aide and the most powerful bureaucrat in Bihar, Singh took voluntary retirement from the IAS and formally joined the JD(U) in 2010, and was seen as its key organisational man, who was credited with expanding the party at the grassroots level. While many saw Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh as Nitish’s No. 2, RCP Singh was said to be “running the show” from behind the scenes.

As Kishor joined the JD(U) as its national vice-president, a hitherto non-existent post, in 2018, RCP Singh seemingly saw his authority being challenged. However, despite being up the party’s pecking order in comparison to senior leaders like Lalan Singh and then general secretary K C Tyagi, Kishor felt “suffocated” as RCP Singh continued to call the shots.

Though both Kishor and RCP Singh never publicly criticised each other, the “cold war” between them was no secret within party circles. Eventually, Kishor quit the JD(U) in January 2020 to launch the “Bihar ki Baat”, an initiative which failed to take off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

RCP Singh rose further to become the JD(U) national president and in July 2021, recommended himself for the lone Union Cabinet berth from the party’s quota in the second Narendra Modi government, seemingly upsetting Lalan Singh.

RCP Singh’s rivalry with Lalan Singh and his proximity to the BJP led him to resign first as the party’s national president in August 2021, and a year later, from the Union Cabinet and the JD(U) after he was overlooked for renomination to the Rajya Sabha. He had been a Rajya Sabha member since 2010.

After lying low for a few months, Singh went on to join the BJP in May 2023 but seemingly lost relevance after Nitish returned to the NDA in January last year. After being denied any key role even after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he went on to float his Aap Sabki Awaaz Party last November. However, his party remained a non-starter.