Ramaiah and Bashishtha (left) in Patna on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, March 3: Retired IAS officer K.P. Ramaiah today joined the JD(U), while Devesh Chandra Thakur — once a close aide of Nitish Kumar — filed nomination for the Bihar Legislative Council election as an Independent from Tirhut graduate constituency.

On a day Thakur formally severed his association with the JD(U), Ramaiah joined the party in the presence of its state chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh. Taking the membership of party, the 59-year-old IAS officer claimed that he had joined the outfit after being impressed with the work of Nitish.

The government has accepted the voluntary retirement application of Ramaiah, who last served as the principal secretary of the SC/ST welfare department. A postgraduate in political science from Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, he hails from Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh.

After joining the JD(U), Ramaiah said: “I have come here to work for the betterment of Dalits and Mahadalits. I wanted to devote my life for the uplift of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes since long, which was not possible being in the administrative service. So, I thought of joining politics.”

Ramaiah said: “My first and top priority would be the development of the SC/ST people. Irrespective of whether the party gives me a ticket or not, I shall keep working.”

In all likelihood, Ramaiah would contest the Lok Sabha polls either from Gaya — where he served as a divisional commissioner — or Sasaram — at present represented by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar.

Welcoming Ramaiah to the JD(U), Bashishtha lauded the 1986 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre for his honesty.