Hours after suspension, ex-minister quits BJP

A day after BJP’s spectacular victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, the party cracked a whip against former Union minister RK Singh by suspending him for “anti-party” activities. Hours later, Singh resigned from the party, taking exception to a show-cause notice that asked him to explain his conduct during election period.

“Your actions have been anti-party and come under the purview of disciplinary violation. The party is taking this seriously,” said the notice issued to Singh, a former IAS officer.

Singh posted his letter to BJP national president JP Nadda on the social media, saying he was giving up the primary membership of the party following the letter issued by state headquarters. Arvind Sharma, office in-charge of the state BJP, had asked him to explain as to why he should not be expelled from the party.

The BJP also issued similar letters to party MLC Ashok Agarwal and his wife. Their son had contested the recent Assembly elections on a Vikassheel Insaan Party ticket.

Singh, who was a member of the Modi government from 2014 to 2024, had embarrassed the NDA and the party during campaigning by accusing Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of being involved in murder and asking the Central leadership to remove him. He had also taken a dig at ally JD-U for giving ticket to history-sheeters such as Anant Kumar Singh.

However, the most damning charge levelled by Singh was of the government allocating 1,200 acres to an Adani firm for a thermal plant. Singh had claimed that the plant was to be built by state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced this in her Budget speech in Parliament. Alleging Rs 62,000-crore scam, Singh questioned the government decision to hand over the project to Adani.

During his election campaign, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi used it as a weapon to question the dispensation and even asked the state government to reply to the charges levelled by Singh.

Singh served as the Secretary of Home in the UPA government before joining the BJP upon retirement. He was elected twice — in 2014 and 2019 — to Parliament from the Arrah seat. After his defeat in the 2024 elections, Singh stayed away from politics. Incidentally, the NDA swept all seven Assembly seats in the parliamentary constituency.