I’m on a holiday, says Jagdanand amid buzz of RJD looking for a new state president

The 77-year-old RJD veteran said he had taken a holiday after working continuously for three years and was just enjoying time with family and friends.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) state president Jagdanand Singh, who is said to be sulking after his son Sudhakar Singh’s “forced” resignation as agriculture minister and had skipped the party’s national council on October 10, said Wednesday he “was taking rest and on a holiday” but parried questions about his reported resignation from the post.

RJD state president Jagdanand Singh. (HT Photo)

“I have nothing to say about media reports,” he said, when asked whether he had put in his papers as RJD’s state unit president.

Talking to HT on phone from his home in Kaimur, the 77-year-old RJD veteran said he had taken a holiday after working continuously for three years and was just enjoying time with family and friends.

Asked when he would resume work or come to Patna, Singh was ambiguous. “I am resting now. Don’t I have the right to take time off?” he said.

He also evaded queries about the possibility that a new state president of RJD could be elected soon.

Singh had skipped RJD’s national executive and national council meetings on October 9-10 in New Delhi.

Party insiders said RJD chief Lalu Prasad has sent feelers to Singh to reconsider his decision to resign, but at the same time, made it clear that “embarrassing the government or CM Kumar by any party functionary” would not be tolerated as RJD is keen to maintain strong ties with JD(U) ahead of 2024 parliamentary polls.

Jagdanand Singh, a close aide of Lalu Prasad, got a second consecutive term as state president on September 20 this year after being elected unopposed.

Problems arose after his son Sudhakar Singh, a first-time MLA who was made a minister after the change of government in Bihar in August this year, began openly attacking state’s agriculture policies and rubbished chief minister Nitish Kumar’s agriculture road maps, besides flagging “rampant corruption” in his own department. CM Kumar had later conceded that the minister had even walked out of a cabinet meeting in a huff.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the RJD has started scouting for Singh’s replacement in case he chooses not to resume work.

Names of RJD’s national principal secretary general Abdul Bari Siddiqui, former speaker Uday Narayn Choudhary and former MLA Shivchandra Ram are doing the rounds.

When contacted , both Siddiqui and Ram feigned ignorance of any such move by the party. “I have already been state president of RJD once. I am not aware of any change taking place,” said Siddiqui.

Ram said he had met the RJD chief in New Delhi on Tuesday morning but he did not say any such thing.