Former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, with no options, talks about Bihar’s third front


Former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, with no options, talks about Bihar's third front

Bihar Assembly Elections 2020: Upendra Kushwaha heads the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP).

Patna:

A third front has emerged in Bihar ahead of next month’s elections with the party of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha breaking away from the opposition alliance. Kushwaha has been on both sides of the fence and is now likely to stand up for himself only when Bihar votes for a new 243-member assembly from October 28 to November 7.

Mr. Kushwaha has said that his Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) will contest the polls together with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Mayawati.

Sources say Kushwaha had plans to join the Nitish Kumar-BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but saw little chance of scoring much in the seat-sharing talks.

Kushwaha was part of the NDA when it was defeated in the 2015 assembly elections by the Nitish Kumar-led mahagatbandhan with the RJD and Congress.

Last year, just before the national elections, he resigned from the NDA citing the BJP’s “arrogance” towards smaller allies and joined the grand alliance led by Congress and the RJD. “The sincerity shown by Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Yadav is one of the reasons I joined, but the main reason I am here is the people of Bihar,” Kushwaha announced in March 2019.

However, a year later, not one but two key parties have resigned from the opposition alliance led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav in the absence of their jailed father Lalu Yadav. Former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also recently rejoined the NDA.

Sources say that the RJD feels that Kushwaha did not transfer his votes to the alliance.

Kushwaha, on the other hand, has conveyed that he is unhappy with Tejashwi’s leadership and considers the 30-year-old to be too immature to lead the opposition even though he was a senior deputy minister when the RJD and Congress were part of the state ruling. . alliance in 2015-17.

Nitish Kumar ended his ties with the RJD and Congress over corruption allegations against Tejashwi, and resurrected his alliance with the BJP, the party with which he had had a bitter break in 2013 over the projection of Narendra Modi as the first candidate. Minister.

RJD, which had been the largest party in the 2015 elections with 81 seats, found it difficult to convince its partners of its dominant position in the coalition and allow it to contest 150 of the 243 seats. The party is fighting its first state elections in the absence of Lalu Prasad, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption.

The results of the Bihar elections will be declared on November 10.

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