Socialist leader, former minister Bhola Singh passes away
Patna,(BiharTimes): Veteran socialist leader, former minister and ex-chairman of the Bihar Citizens Council, Bhola Prasad Singh, passed away in Patna on Monday. He was 90.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who also happens to be his relative, went to his residence to pay homage.
He was cremated with full state honours as ordered by the CM.
Bhola, who was a minister in the first non-Congress government in 1967, had defeated Nitish in the Assembly polls in 1977 despite a wave in favour of the then Janata Party. Nitish was then a Janata Party candidate and Bhola ironically of Congress.
Bhola, an advocate by profession, was very close to fire-brand Socialist thinker and parliamentarian Ram Manohar Lohia.
In 1995 Assembly election he unsuccessfully contested election against the then CM Lalu Prasad from Danapur Assembly constituency on Samata Party ticket. He then switched over to RJD and Lalu made him an MLC.
It is said that as a minister of the vigilance department, he ordered a probe against his own chief minister.
During the JP movement a move was made to forcefully get the resignation of MLAs, but he opposed it.
When Nitish became the chief minister in 2005, he made him the vice-chairman of the State Citizens Council having the status of a cabinet minister. He remained in this post till 2015 after which this government body was dissolved.
