Union Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries and BJP’s firebrand leader Giriraj Singh on Tuesday said his political career may end with Prime Minister Narendra Modi completing his second term.
Mr. Singh dismissed speculation that he was to become Bihar Chief Minister after the 2020 Assembly poll. “I think I’m nearing the end of my political career. I’m among those who had entered public life not with the ambition of becoming an MLA, MP or acquiring any position of power. I was fired by the nationalistic dream of integration of Kashmir for which our ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee gave up his life…all my dreams have been fulfilled in PM Modi’s government...My political career may end with the completion of the ongoing tenure of the Modi government,” Mr. Singh told reporters in Muzaffarpur town of north Bihar.
He is considered close to BJP president Amit Shah and PM Modi. He won from the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency in the last poll, defeating former JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar by over four lakh votes.
Of late, Mr. Singh’s supporters in Begusarai have projected him as the next Chief Minister of the State. However Mr. Singh said he was not in the race.
Two days back, while visiting flood-prone areas of his constituency, he had publicly reprimanded a local government official for not taking proper care of the flood-affected people. Later, he also accused the Nitish Kumar government of a “stepmotherly” treatment of Begusarai in comparison to Nalanda, the native district of the Chief Minister.
“As an MP of the constituency, if I do not raise issues of my people, then what should I do...should I commit suicide,” said Mr. Singh, who is said to be not on good terms with the Chief Minister and his deputy, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
Recently, when a State BJP MLC Sanjay Paswan made a statement suggesting that Mr. Nitish Kumar should now quit his post for the BJP it triggered speculation that the party would have its own CM in Bihar after the 2020 Assembly poll. However, Mr. Sushil Modi rejected this in a tweet to say that “Nitish Kumar is the NDA captain in Bihar and he will remain captain of NDA.”
Mr. Paswan, later went to Delhi and met Mr. Singh. Both the leaders had a closed-door meeting for an hour and sources told The Hindu this was resented by both Mr. Nitish Kumar and Mr. Sushil Modi.
Earlier, Mr. Singh had embarrassed the Chief Minister, criticising him for “hosting Iftaar parties during Ramadan but making no such arrangements for those who observed a fast during Navaratri festival and ate only fruits.”
Meanwhile, the buzz is that the sudden change in the mood of Mr. Singh came after a reported meeting of some top RSS leaders with Mr. Nitish Kumar on Monday at his official residence.
