Will speak to 'disgruntled' Upendra Kushwaha: Bihar CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said he will have a word with his key political aide Upendra Kushwaha who has of late been disgruntled, triggering speculations of exit from the JD(U).

Kumar, the de facto supremo of the JD(U), was replying to queries from journalists about Kushwaha, the party's parliamentary board chief, in Gaya district which he visited as part of a mass outreach programme "Samadhan Yatra".

"Please ask Upendra Kushwaha to speak to me (Zara Upendra Kushwaha ko kahiye hamse baat Karne ke lein)", quipped the CM, with trademark wry humour, when his attention was drawn towards the speculations doing the rounds.

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"Everybody has a right to decide his own course. Kushwaha has parted ways, only to return to us, on more than one occasion", recalled Kumar.

"He is currently not well. Let him come back. I will speak to him. The last I heard him speak he seemed to be firmly by my side", said Kumar about his party colleague whose pictures with some BJP leaders at AIIMS, New Delhi have gone viral on social media.

Notably, Kushwaha had merged his Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) with the JD(U) two years ago and was quickly rewarded with the top party post and a berth in the legislative council.

An ambitious protégé of Kumar, Kushwaha had quit the JD(U) in 2013 to float RLSP, allied with the NDA, tasted success in the Lok Sabha polls a year later and won a berth in the union council of ministers.

A volatile leader, Kushwaha, had grown uneasy with Kumar's return to NDA in 2017, which caused him to quit the alliance and give up his ministerial berth.

After spending several years in political wilderness he was finally resurrected by his former mentor.

However, Kumar's stout refusal to have another deputy CM besides Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the largest constituent of the ruling 'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar, is said to have irked Kushwaha who is believed to have pined for the plum post.