In a move which is likely to give a body blow to the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, senior JD(U) leader Prabhunath Singh is joining the RJD on Saturday. With Bihar Assembly elections now less than three months way, Mr Prabhunath Singh’s move will come as a double blow for the state chief minister, as another senior JD (U) leader, Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh has openly stated that he would be campaigning for the Congress.
Mr Prabhunath Singh will be joining the RJD at Chhapra in Bihar in the presence of the party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and the LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan both of whom have flown to Patna on Friday for the occasion.
Clearly buoyed over the development, Mr Yadav, while speaking to this newspaper, invoked a rustic saying “sau sunaar ka, ek lohar ka (one blow of an iron smith equals 100 blows of a goldsmith)” to stress the political importance of Mr Prabhunath Singh switching ranks on the eve of the state elections. Mr Yadav was referring to a host of RJD leaders like Shyam Razak, Muhhamad Taslimuddin having joined the ranks of the JD (U) on the poll eve.
Mr Prabhunath Singh, who is a formidable Rajput leader, is likely to boost the prospects of the RJD in making inroads among the upper caste on the eve of the state elections. The RJD-LJP combine is making attempts to weave around the equation of Muslim-Yadav-Dalit-Rajput in its attempt to outsmart the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance in the state.
The rumour mill had already been buzzing for few months about the move of Mr Prabhunath Singh to join the RJD, which had sent Mr Kumar hunting for formidable Rajput leaders, as he reached out to the RJD leader and Lok Sabha MP from Buxar Jagdanand Singh and the family members of the jailed leader Anand Mohan Singh. However, Mr Kumar is learnt to have been disappointed in his attempts to wean away Mr Jagdanand Singh, while no political gain could be made out from the family members of Anand Mohan Singh. With the senior JD (U) leader and Lok Sabha MP from Munger, Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, who also has a formidable support base in the Bhumihar caste, the opponents of the Bihar chief minister are hoping for a clear division of caste voters in the state.