Former Union Minister & RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passes away at AIIMS

On Sunday, September 13, former Union Minister and ex-RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away at AIIMS, New Delhi. This comes days after he wrote a letter announcing his resignation from RJD. 74-year-old Raghuvansh Prasad was put on ventilator at the ICU unit of AIIMS and was undergoing treatment for over one week. In June, he was tested positive for COVID-19.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was a Member of Parliament in the 15th Lok Sabha and represented Bihar's Vaishali constituency. He also served as the national vice president of RJD until last month, before tendering his resignation allegedly due to a leadership vacuum and internal war-of-words with Lalu's sons. Known as one of the ace politicians in Bihar politics, he served as energy minister of the state in the Karpoori Thakur cabinet. Singh also served as union ministers for three terms, the last one during Manmohan Singh's UPA 1 as Minister for Rural Development. He is credited for bringing in the NREGA scheme under UPA-1. Even though he represented Bihar's Vaishali constituency for a record five times, he lost two consecutive elections - 2014 and 2019 - from Vaishali.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was one of the key confidants of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and has played a key role in building the party and in making Lalu the CM. After his resignation, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who is currently lodged in jail, wrote back to him on his resignation stating that he cannot go anywhere and they ould talk about the issues once he is well. A day after resigning from RJD, Singh also penned a letter to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar demanding change in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job scheme and urged for developmental works in Vaishali.