Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh
Harivansh Narayan Singh, the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, paid Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, a courtesy visit on Monday night in Patna.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader and minister from Bihar Ashok Chowdhary claimed that the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman was a party MP and that he met the chief minister in that capacity.
“He is a JD-U member of parliament and he met the CM in that capacity only. Nothing more should be read into this,” said Chowdhary said.
According to the media, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s office has described the meeting as a “courtesy call” and said that the meeting lasted 15 minutes.
In the weeks following JD attack U’s on Harivansh Narayan Singh for attending the opening ceremony of the new Parliament building in May and accusing him of working for the Bharatiya Janata Party, neither Singh nor Nitish Kumar has commented on their one-on-one encounter (BJP).
On May 30, after Harivansh Narayan Singh took part in the event, JD-U president Lalan Singh commented, “It looks like he has thrown his conscience into a dumpster and gone on.” He was also informed by the JD-U leader that Nitish Kumar, not the BJP, had manipulated the phone lines to secure his election as deputy chairman.
One of Nitish Kumar’s detractors, Prashant Kishor, a former electoral strategist, has said in the past that the chief minister hasn’t cut off communication with the public.
“We don’t need any more proof other than the fact that Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh is a JD(U) MP. Neither has he resigned from the post, nor has the party asked him to vacate the post…the BJP has also not removed him,” Kishor said in November last year.
