Will he or won’t he? This exactly remains the case with Union minister RCP Singh whose term as a Rajya Sabha Member expires in July. Even though only four days are left for filing of the nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on 10 June, suspense still continues over his fate with the JD-U yet to announce his candidature. The last date for filing nomination papers is 31 May.

Uncertainty grew further on Friday with both the top two leaders in the organizations—chief minister Nitish Kumar and national JD-U president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh—remaining tightlipped over the issue and refusing to share any information with the media about the fate of Singh. The six-year RS term of Singh, once considered very close to the chief minister, expires on 7 July which means he needs to be re-nominated to the Upper House to continue as the minister in the Narendra Modi government.

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“Sab maloom ho jayega (You will get to know on time),” was the curt reply of the chief minister when asked by the media persons to clear suspense over the name of his party colleague. The chief minister had gone to offer floral tributes to the country’s first Prime Minister JL Nehru on his death anniversary when the media persons posed this question before him.

JD-U president Singh too appeared equally evasive. “You will be informed about it once the chief minister takes any decision (in this regard),” Lalan Singh told the media, emerging from a meeting with party leaders in the office today. The chief minister, it may be noted here, has been authorized by the party to take any decision in this regard. Another senior JD-U leader and building construction minister Ashok Chaudhary made similar observations.

The whole situation looks further complicated with the Union minister telling the media that it was the party to decide what he did for the organization. “I always worked for strengthening the organization and its expansion. Now it’s for the party to decide over it,” was how told the media after meeting party workers at his residence yesterday.

Late on Thursday evening, he called on the chief minister and had a discussion for some 45 minutes. At the CM’s residence, he also had interaction with the party president. However, the scene witnessed later was not quite encouraging—the Union minister leaving the CM House alone and the chief minister and the party president rushing somewhere together in an official vehicle!

A series of developments amply indicates the kind of relations between them yet it will be very risky to guess the conclusion.