Ex-Home Secretary RK Singh to join BJP; to contest Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: Former Union Home Secretary RK Singh and ex-petroleum secretary RS Pandey are likely to join the BJP on Friday. Singh had recently turned down an offer to join as an advisor to the Nitish Kumar government.

The retired IAS officer (1975 batch) from Bihar, who worked as the Home Secretary under P Chidambaram and Sushil Kumar Shinde, had lately been critical of the Bihar government over its handling of Narendra Modi’s rally in Patna.

Singh may be fielded as a candidate by the BJP in his home state Bihar in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, Singh was the district magistrate of Samastipur where LK Advani was arrested on October 23, 1990, while en route to Ayodhya.

Pandey is a 1972 batch IAS officer and is currently interlocutor for Nagaland talks. He was known for his strong views on natural resources. During his tenure the government intervened the RIL vs RNRL case, fought between two Ambani brothers, and he was instrumental in declaring Reliance-operated KG-D6 block as a national asset.