Lalan Singh elected JD(U) president unopposed for fresh term

New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, better known as Lalan Singh, was on Monday elected unopposed for a fresh three-year term at the helm of the regional party.

JD(U) general secretary Afaque Ahmed Khan said Singh, a Lok Sabha MP and confidant of the party's preeminent leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was the only person in the fray and was elected unopposed after the last date of the withdrawal of nomination was over on Monday.

He had taken over as the president of the party in July, 2021 after then incumbent R C P Singh resigned following his induction in the Union Cabinet when the JD(U) was a BJP ally.

R C P Singh had a bitter fallout with Kumar later as he was seen to have drifted close to the BJP leadership. The JD(U) later snapped ties with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD-Congress-Left alliance.

Party leaders said the newly-elected national council of the JD(U) will meet in Patna on December 10 to ratify Lalan Singh's election, a formality, and then it will hold its plenary session the next day in the state's capital.