RK Singh replaces Piyush Goyal as India's new Power Minister

NEW DELHI: From halting the Rath and arresting LK Advani as a district magistrate on the orders of Lalu Prasad Yadav, overseeing right-wing probes as the home secretary under P Chidambaram, taking on the next home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and even slamming his own party, the BJP, amidst the Bihar loss in 2015, IAS officer RK Singh is now stepping into the big shoes of Piyush Goel as power minister.

The outspoken Stephanian from Bihar was never short of an opinion when seated in North Block and spoke out on involvement of 10 persons with RSS links being involved in acts of terrorism.

Joining the BJP after his retirement, Singh distanced himself from the issue and went on to say he is on the same nationalistic wavelength as RSS. His dislike for the UPA was in full flow when he contested from Ara in Bihar in 2014.

Speaking to ET then, he termed UPA leaders as “nincompoops and fools” who were scared of Pakistan aggression. “Hit one of Pakistan’s airports if they attack us. If you don’t hit them back, they keep on hitting us,” he had then said.

The Modi government has prophetically carried out surgical strikes but it needs Singh for another job now. That is delivering in the power sector.

“Piyush Goel has made my challenge easier by finishing the bulk of the work here. I have to take it to the finishing line in 2017,” Singh said on Sunday.