PATNA: Union steel minister and senior JD(U) leader Ramchandra Prasad Singh, commonly known as RCP, had to vacate his Patna -based bungalow around midnight (of June 19-20) after he was asked by a senior party functionary to vacate the government-owned house immediately.
Though the bungalow (at 7, Strand Road) was officially allotted in the name of the JD(U)’s chief whip in the Bihar legislative council Sanjay Kumar Singh alias Gandhi, RCP and members of his family have been living in the state government’s central pool house for around 12 years. RCP entered the bungalow months after he resigned as an IAS officer and was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2010 as JD(U) leader.
The bungalow was recently allotted in the name of the state’s chief secretary Amir Subhani and the chief whip Sanjay Gandhi was allotted another bungalow on the same Strand Road. However, Gandhi is yet to move into his new bungalow.
“Party’s chief whip Sanjay Gandhi telephoned our ‘Saheb’ (RCP Singh) around 8 pm on Sunday night and requested him to vacate the bungalow by midnight. Gandhi also informed Saheb that he had given in writing to the state government that the bungalow at 7, Strand Road, had already been vacated by him,” a close aide of the Union minister told TOI on Monday.
He said soon after Gandhi’s message, RCP asked his personal employees at the Patna-based bungalow to vacate the house immediately by midnight.
“We began packing the personal furniture, books and other household belongings of the Union minister around 8.30 pm on Sunday and vacated the bungalow by midnight,” RCP’s personal staff Vishan Kumar Bittu, who vacated the bungalow, told TOI on Monday.
Bittu said as the Union minister has no personal house in the state capital, his belongings were presently shifted to a friend’s house. RCP’s all personal belongings were carried away through four pick-up vans, he said.
Contacted over phone, Sanjay Gandhi told TOI that it was he who used to live in the bungalow at 7, Strand Road. “RCP Babu, being a senior leader of the JD(U), used to stay as a guest at the said bungalow whenever he came from Delhi. Half of the bungalow was being used for the party’s works,” the JD(U) chief whip said.
On being questioned whether he asked RCP to vacate the bungalow, Gandhi said it was his bungalow and he vacated it on Sunday as it had already been allotted to the chief secretary.
RCP was asked to vacate his bungalow around three weeks after he was denied re-nomination for third consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha by his party. Once considered No-2 in the JD(U) after its de facto leader Nitish Kumar, RCP worked as the principal secretary to the Bihar CM (Nitish) for around 5 years after being elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2010. RCP’s current term in the Rajya Sabha ends on July 7.
