JOIN USUpendra Kushwaha announces decision to merge RLSP with JD(U)
Nearly eight years after they parted ways, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday joined hands after the latter merged his pocket organisation Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) with the Janata Dal (United) here on Sunday.
Nitish, who has been consolidating himself after facing one of the worst-ever performances by his party in the November 2020 Assembly polls, wholeheartedly welcomed Kushwaha in his party fold.
“We were always one. And we will always remain one. Together, we will help the JD(U) scale new heights,” said Nitish in an unusual display of bonhomie with his protege. Immediately thereafter, Nitish announced Kushwaha’s appointment as chairman of the JD(U) Parliamentary Board with immediate effect.
Kushwaha, who was one of the founder members of the Samata Party, developed differences with his mentor Nitish and formed RLSP in 2013. He joined the NDA and contested three Lok Sabha seats in 2014. Incidentally, the RLSP won all three seats, which eventually led Kushwaha to join the Narendra Modi government as a Union Minister (MoS, Human Resource Development Department).
However, Kushwaha’s ambitions grew manifold and he parted ways with the NDA on the eve of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and joined Grand Alliance. Predictably, he had to bite the dust at the hustings in the 2019 parliamentary polls. The RLSP was wiped out in the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls after it failed to win a single seat.
Looking for an honourable ‘Ghar wapsi’, Kushwaha held parleys with Nitish, who too was smarting after the JD(U)’s worst performance in the last 15 years during the November Assembly polls.
“Former Bihar JD(U) President Bashishtha Narayan Singh played a significant role of a peacemaker and brought the two leaders—Nitish (Kurmi) and Kushwaha (Koeri)—together. One of the influential OBCs (Other Backward Castes) Kurmi-Koeri together form around 12% of the population in Bihar and may help Nitish gain his lost ground in the days to come,” opined noted political commentator Ajay Kumar.