Ram Kripal Singh may join BJP

Ram Kripal Singh Yadav will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, ending his more-than-two-decade-long association with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and its supremo Lalu Prasad.

He may also contest from the Patliputra constituency in Bihar, with the BJP giving enough indications of giving him a party ticket to take on the RJD chief’s daughter Misa Bharati in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Yadav, a Rajya Sabha member, decided to quit the RJD and join the BJP after Prasad fielded his daughter to contest elections from Patliputra, denying him the party ticket.

Yadav, who had vacated the Patliputra seat for the RJD chief in 2009, wanted to contest from the constituency this time. He resigned from all party posts, perturbed over Prasad’s decision to “promote” his family members at the cost of his “loyals”, said sources close to Yadav.

To placate disgruntled Yadav, the RJD chief sent Misa to him. On March 7, she reached here to assuage Yadav, telling mediapersons she was ready to surrender her candidature for him if he wanted it.

However, all her efforts went in vein as Yadav felt what she was telling before the media should have personally been communicated to him by the RJD supremo. “But he did not say anything. Only sent his daughter,” said sources close to Yadav.

He met top BJP leaders, including party president Rajnath Singh, as well as senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Ravishankar Prasad, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Tuesday and discussed his joining the saffron party.

“I have met Rajnathji today (Tuesday). We had a good meeting. I will comment on the rest of the issues tomorrow (Wednesday),” Yadav told reporters when asked what his strategy would be and whether he was being given the ticket to contest from Pataliputra by the BJP.