Patna, Oct. 9: Ailing socialist leader Bhola Prasad Singh, aged around 90, died on Monday morning at a hospital - snapping Bihar's strongest ties with the late socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia.

Immediately after learning about his death, chief minister Nitish Kumar, who also happens to be his relative, rushed to his residence to pay homage and announced that his cremation would take place with state honours. The late leader had defeated Nitish in the Assembly polls in 1977 despite a wave in favour of the then Janata Party.

Bhola was a minister in the first non-Congress ministry in 1967. Old-timers recall that whenever socialist leader Lohia visited Bihar, he always moved around in a car belonging to Bhola - a Fiat.

'Bhola babu, an advocate by profession, was the only socialist leader in Bihar at that time who owned a car,' recalled an old socialist leader, pointing out that the late leader stuck to the socialist party when others had deserted it.

'Bhola Prasad Singh was also close to my brother late Lalit Narayan Mishra. As a minister of the vigilance department, he ordered a probe against his own chief minister. During the JP agitation in the 1970s, a move was made to forcefully get the resignation of MLAs. Bhola babu opposed the move,' said former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, stressing that he was so close to Lohia that Bhola babu's words were taken to be the words of Lohia.

Bhola Prasad Singh had his flip-flops in politics. In between, he joined the Congress and then was among the first leaders to join Samata Party when Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes separated from Lalu Prasad in 1994 and even contested unsuccessfully against Lalu from Danapur in 1995. He later split with Nitish and joined Lalu who made him an MLC. After 2005, chief minister Nitish Kumar made him the vice-chairman of the State Citizens Council having the status of a cabinet minister. He remained in this post till 2015 after which this government body was dissolved.