Veteran RJD leader Jagadanand Singh to head the partys state

Veteran RJD leader Jagadanand Singh on Monday filed his nomination for election to the post of the party's Bihar unit president, in a development that is being seen as founding chief Lalu Prasad's attempt to defuse tensions between his sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav.

Singh will succeed Ram Chandra Purbe, a sitting MLC, who is not running for a fifth consecutive term as the state president.

"Nomination papers were filed and cleared upon scrutiny. After the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers on Tuesday, the party's state executive will meet on Wednesday when the name of the winning candidate will be announced", state RJD spokesman Chitaranjan Gagan told PTI.

He, however, added "since only Singh has filed his nomination papers, his election is a foregone conclusion".

Singh is understood to have come forward to take up the responsibility at the instance of Prasad, currently serving sentences in a number of fodder scam cases in Ranchi.

The RJD supremo, whose party is now a pale shadow of its mighty older self, has been worried over the recalcitrance of Tej Pratap Yadav his elder son who has earned a reputation of engaging in spats with party colleagues including Purbe,MLA and father of his estranged wife Chandrika Roy and younger brother Tejashwi Yadav, chosen by Prasad as his heir apparent.

The wily jailed leader seems to have played his cards well as Tej Pratap Yadav was seen smilingly flashing the victory sign at journalists when he reached the state assembly to take part in proceedings earlier in the day.

Singh, a dyed in the wool socialist who has remained away from controversies and is respected by all factions within the party, made an impassioned statement after filing his nomination papers.

"We have come a long way since the establishment of the party by Lalu Prasad. In 36 days, the year 2020 will begin. Let us resolve to carry forward our fight for social justice and communal harmony in the year that is to come under the young leadership of Tejashwi Yadav", Singh said.

"Our party has suffered a lot on account of calumny by those involved in stirring communal frenzy and, unfortunately, succeeding in achieving power through their devious means", Singh said.

He was making an oblique reference to the BJP, which lost the assembly polls four years ago but joined the Nitish Kumar government two years ago when the Chief Minister dumped the RJD rattled by corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav, who was then his deputy.

The RJD currently has the highest number of MLAs in the state, though its fortunes have nosedived since Prasad went behind bars in December, 2017.

In the Lok Sabha polls this year, the party contested 19 out of 40 seats in the state and drew a blank its worst-ever performance since inception in 1997.

The prominent losers included Singh himself a former MP from Buxar besides heavyweights like former Union minister and party national vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who failed to wrest back from the NDA Vaishali which he had won five times on the trot.

Jagadanand Singhs election to the top party post is also being seen as Prasads attempt to win back, ahead of the assembly polls next year, a section of Rajput voters who had sided with the Janata Dal out of solidarity with the V P Singh notwithstanding a sense of being aggrieved by the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations.