Patna: Ahead of the Oct 23 elections to eight legislative council seats in the state, deputy CM Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Tuesday said the long-standing dispute between JD(U)’s Mokama MLA Anant Singh and Patna graduate seat MLC Neeraj Kumar was heading towards a definite resolution following the intervention of Union minister and former party president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh.“The party has taken note of whatever he (Lalan Singh) said here on Monday that had a bearing on the dispute between Anant and Neeraj. The party has also taken note of what he said about Anant’s version that the party should have intervened in the dispute in the past,” Choudhary told reporters at the state JD(U) headquarters.“The party, in fact, is thankful to Lalan Singh that he chose to intervene in the matter when earlier asked by the party to do so. From what he said on Monday, it is clear that the dispute has moved towards a resolution.“Everything he said was transparent and there is no confusion with regard to the emerging final truce between the two disputants,” Choudhary also said.Lalan on Monday acknowledged the long-standing dispute but dismissed the public exchange of words between Anant and Neeraj as being like “to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. He also said he had asked Anant not to issue any statement for now, to which he had agreed, and advised reporters not to seek one from him.Lalan’s “near truce” announcement came as Neeraj was heading to the Patna division commissioner’s office with supporters to file his nomination for a fourth term as MLC.Neeraj faces Dilip Kumar of the RJD, Anuj Singh of Jan Suraaj (JS), Asadulalh Khan of Congress and Independent candidates. Anant had earlier backed Anuj to defeat Neeraj.JS founder and Bankipur MLA Prashant Kishor on Tuesday said, “JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar should come out in the open to announce his support for Neeraj publicly, and not speak through his joint photo with Neeraj, which could be AI generated!”
