Patna,(BiharTimes): The Rashtriya Janata Dal is out to teach the former Union home secretary, Raj Kumar Singh, a lesson as he had on December 13 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Raj Kumar Singh was the district magistrate of Samastipur, when he followed the order of the then chief minister Lalu Prasad to arrest the BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani on October 23, 1990 when the latter was leading the Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra.
Raj Kumar Singh retired as the home secretary of India on June 30 last. Till now the RJD used to hold him in high esteem. A few months back, while intervening in a discussion in Parliament, the party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav pointed out as to how the man whom he ordered to arrest Advani has now become the home secretary of India.

So the party is certainly feeling cheated by his decision to join the BJP. In fact Raj Kumar Singh was even offered the post of Infrastructure Advisor by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. But he went on to join the BJP.

Now the RJD has made it clear that it would make his entry into the Lok Sabha impossible. Party leaders are now saying that they would leave no stone unturned to defeat him whether he contests election from Ara Lok Sabha seat or his home constituency of Supaul.

In Ara, where there is substantial Rajput votes, the RJD is planning to go to the extent of supporting the CPI ML candidate to ensure his victory. Lalu is in fact working for a much grander secular alliance of Congress, RJD, LJP, CPI and CPI ML. Whether this would be acceptable to all the parties is not yet clear but the RJD is making efforts in this direction.

The then open organization of CPI ML (it was underground then), the Indian Peoples Front made a history when in 1989 it won this Lok Sabha seat. The CPI ML is still strong. In the last two elections Janata Dal (United) won the seat while BJP has never won it.

Yet for the BJP Raj Kumar Singh is a prize catch and would do everything to tease the secular alliance.
In Supaul, which happens to be Singh’s home place, Rajputs are numerically not as strong. There is substantial Yadav, OBC, Dalit and Muslim votes. The RJD would try its level best to exploit this situation. This seat is also in the hands of JD(U). But its MP Vishwa Mohan Kumar was caught in a sting operation recently. If JD(U) puts up a new candidate the battle would become all more interesting.