Former Union minister R.K. Singh on Wednesday dared the BJP leadership to take disciplinary action against him for publicly demanding the resignation of key Bihar party leaders facing corruption allegations, piling pressure on the party ahead of the Assembly polls.

The bureaucrat turned politician cautioned the BJP and the JDU against fielding any “corrupt and criminal” leaders in the October-November polls, promising to campaign against them with more “incriminating material”.

“I am in the BJP and I am raising this issue against corruption, which I have always fought against as a civil servant and then as a politician. If the party takes disciplinary action against me, so be it. I am ready for it,” Singh told a news portal.

The dare came a day after the former power minister in the Narendra Modi government backed Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor’s allegations of corruption against some state BJP leaders. Singh on Tuesday named deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary and state BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal and said the two leaders should step down if they fail to come clean on the corruption allegations levelled against them by Kishor.

He, however, rejected speculation on him switching to Kishor’s party and said that if compelled, he would rather launch his own party than join someone. “I am not going to join Jan Suraaj or any other party. If the situation arises, I will launch a party that will give space to clean people above caste and community divisions,” he said.

Rajput anger

Singh’s rebellious outburst against his own party leaders has once again put the focus on the internal tensions between Rajput leaders and the current BJP dispensation.

The former minister is the second Rajput leader in Bihar after Saran Lok Sabha member Rajiv Pratap Rudy to have obliquely taken on the BJP leadership.