5 reasons Kushwaha will be kicked out of NDA

The vexed issue of seat-sharing talks among the NDA constituents seems to have been settled. The BJP-led alliance, it has been reliably learnt, has decided not to leave any seat out of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar for Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha’s outfit RLSP.

As per the pact, which has now been finalised and confirmed by a top ruling party leader, the BJP and JD (U) will contest 17 seats each while leaving the rest six seats for Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Kushwaha, who is Union Minister of State for HRD, besides being the president of his pocket organisation Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), is himself to be blamed for being given a shabby treatment in the NDA. The top BJP leadership is believed to be miffed with Kushwaha for five prime reasons.

First, he did not meet Amit Shah when the BJP president called him to discuss seat-sharing talks in New Delhi in October.

Secondly, the day when Shah announced that BJP and JD (U) would contest 50:50 seats in Bihar, Kushwaha met Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly.

Thirdly, Kushwaha made baseless charges against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alleging that the Bihar CM called him ‘neech’, although the fact is that Nitish said at a media programme that “level of political discourse should not be brought down to a low level.” Nitish was responding to a query whether he ever told Kushwaha that he will relinquish the post of Chief-ministership after 2020.

Fourthly, Kushwaha, though serving as a Union Minister, has been giving statements against the NDA, including the Centre as well as State Government.

Fifth and last, Kushwaha recently met Sharad Yadav, a friend-turn-foe of Nitish and Narendra Modi. This meeting took place at a time when Kushwaha went to Delhi to meet Amit Shah but instead met the Grand Alliance leader.

“Chale jayein toh achcha hai. Chutkara mile. (If he leaves, it will be good riddance,” said Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai, while speaking to Deccan Herald, on the imminent exit of Kushwaha from the NDA.

The Congress has, meanwhile, extended an olive branch to Kushwaha and asked him to make up his mind fast and decide on joining the Mahagatbandhan (Grand Alliance). “Decide fast. Time is running out. You have nothing more left in the NDA,” one of the AICC spokespersons Prem Chandra Mishra told Kushwaha here on Wednesday.