Former home secretary joins BJP

Former home secretary R.K. Singh Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Singh, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Bihar cadre (1975 batch) was home secretary from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013.

As district magistrate of Samastipur, he was instrumental in the arrest of senior party leader L.K. Advani during the latter's Rath Yatra in 1990.

"I share BJP's hardline orientation on issues of national security. BJP and its other associates like RSS never compromise on this. Other parties tend to compromise due to their vote banks," Singh said after formally joining the party in the presence of president Rajnath Singh.

According to reports, Singh turned down an offer of a cabinet post from the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar to join BJP.

Along with Singh, former oil secretary R.S. Pandey also joined the BJP. Both are likely to be pitched as candidates from Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls.

Sunil Shastri, son of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and retired railways official Dharam Singh too joined the party. Shastri was earlier in the Congress.

"People who have served the country with distinction have decided to do their bit when it is in trouble. Today is just the beginning. You will see many more such people joining BJP in days to come," Rajnath Singh told reporters.