Arrah, Bihar: Sitting in a guesthouse, surrounded by hundreds of villagers who have come to inform him about rival CPI-ML candidate’s aggressive campaign in Bihar’s Arrah, Union minister R.K. Singh, two-time MP from this Lok Sabha seat, is confident of another victory.
In an interaction with ThePrint last week, Singh, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said developmental work done by him over the past 10 years will lead to his third win from the constituency. At the same time, he cautioned his team and supporters to be extra vigilant about voter turnout at booths, citing the dip in turnout numbers in Bihar.
This time, Singh has been pitted against Sudama Prasad of the CPI-ML, which has had a strong base in Arrah since 1950. The Lok Sabha seat has seven assembly constituencies, of which five are held by the INDIA bloc and two by the BJP. The CPI-ML, along with the Congress and several other parties, is a constituent of the INDIA bloc.
“The Congress doesn’t have leaders to lead and the country has changed. The country is not ready for the Congress’s appeasement politics now and people will not tolerate the Congress’ absurd theory of redistribution of wealth in the country,” said Singh, a former civil servant who was known as a no-nonsense officer and gained popularity for arresting BJP stalwart L.K. Advani in Bihar during the 1990 rath yatra.
When speaking about “redistribution of wealth”, Singh was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegation at a public meeting in Rajasthan last month that the Congress would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims if voted to power.
“The Congress has done appeasement politics since the early days — there is no dispute in this. They implemented Article 370 (in Jammu & Kashmir) but did not remove it. The country will not tolerate this type of appeasement politics now,” Singh said.
“Now, they (Congress) are talking about inheritance tax. People will not tolerate this. Why are you talking about doing a survey of people’s wealth? Why will you do this? Neither do they (Congress) have a leader, nor does their alliance have a leader. People have no trust in their alliance,” he alleged.
The reference was aimed at Indian Overseas Congress chairman Sam Pitroda’s praise for an ‘inheritance tax’ during an interview last month.
Singh had a four-decade distinguished career as an IAS officer before he took the plunge into politics by joining the BJP in 2013. He had served as Union home secretary in the second Congress-led UPA government at the Centre from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, he won from Arrah, defeating RJD’s Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha. Singh was subsequently named minister of state in the Modi cabinet and later promoted as Union minister.
Asked about the switch from civil service to politics, Singh said that “any person will change after getting so much love from the people”.
“The people of my constituency give so much love. When I was an officer, my image was that of a tough man, and I was tough, but now this constituency and the people of this constituency have become my family. I got so much love from them that it changed me completely,” he added.
Questioned about his poll plank in Bihar, where the BJP and JD(U) are in alliance, Singh said “the development of Arrah is the only agenda”.
“We have changed the face of Arrah in the last 10 years. My in-laws’ house is in Arrah. We have done a lot for the development of the constituency, from making national highways to bringing a technological university, developing state-of-the-art public places and making electricity available to people. But many works are yet to be completed in our next term. We are here to change the face of Arrah and I am committed to it,” he told ThePrint.
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‘Nobody asked me for a favour’
Arrah is known as the birthplace of Veer Kunwar Singh, a military commander known for his role in the 1857 war of independence.
The BJP won the seat for the first time in 2014 when Singh defeated Kushwaha by more than one lakh votes. The parliamentary constituency has previously seen a violent confrontation between the Bihar-based militia Ranvir Sena and the CPI-ML.
Asked about his experiences while working with the many chief ministers of Bihar, from Karpoori Thakur to incumbent Nitish Kumar, Singh said that it was his “no-nonsense officer tag and honesty” that helped him maintain a cordial relationship with every CM.
“Nobody asked me for a favour,” he told ThePrint.
“I have worked with many chief ministers. When I became the SDO, Karpoori Thakur was the CM. From Jagannath Mishra to Lalu Prasad, I have worked with several chief ministers but never faced any problems. Everybody gave me space to work. All chief ministers loved me because they knew that I didn’t work for a particular caste or for any other consideration or favour.”
Singh further said that “people in Bihar love bureaucrats who are honest and strict”.
“The Bihari people appreciate honesty and if you are honest, they love you so much.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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