Gives an ultimatum to BJP, says Amit Shah should announce the seat-sharing formula for Bihar by 30 November.
The relationship of Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) with the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is more or less over and a formal announcement to that effect is likely to be made by Kushwaha himself soon. The uneasiness in the alliance saw three major developments over this week, which clearly show that the BJP and the JDU are looking at business beyond Kushwaha. For the first time since the issue has cropped up, senior Bihar BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi launched an attack on Kushwaha on 12 November.
Without taking the name of Kushwaha, Modi tweeted that “some people (in an obvious reference to Kushwaha) were falsely stating that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had insulted Kushwaha by calling him ‘neech’ (lowly person) and that these people were trying to become ‘saheed’ (martyr).”
Amidst all this, it emerged that the two RLSP MLAs —Lalan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar—are in touch with Janata Dal United (JDU) and are likely to join the ruling party. Shekhar even met JDU national vice-president Prashant Kishor at the CM’s house in Patna recently. Reports suggest that he is likely to be given a berth in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet.
This act of “poaching” is being seen as a direct attack on Kushwaha by Nitish Kumar and with neither the national nor the state leadership of BJP speaking up against this, Kushwaha has been pushed to the corner in the ruling alliance.
In an effort to seek clarity regarding the RLSP’s standing in NDA, Kushwaha took an appointment to meet BJP national president Amit Shah earlier this week. But he was left high and dry when the meeting could not take place because of Shah’s busy schedule. He again sought an appointment on Friday, but did not receive any response from Shah’s office, a development which was termed as “unfortunate” by Kushwaha.
Addressing his workers during the party’s national executive in Patna on Saturday, Kushwaha gave an ultimatum to BJP by stating that Shah should announce the seat-sharing formula for Bihar by 30 November and also asked Kumar to tender a public apology for calling him a “lowly person”.
Sources said that before taking a final call on his continuance in NDA, Kushwaha is trying to seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too. But his patience is running low as apart from Kumar, he is being attacked by the state BJP leadership. Hence, his staying in NDA is becoming more and more difficult with every passing day.
“Kushwaha is now stuck between the devil and the deep sea. Due to the recent developments, his bargaining power with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, too, has decreased as he has taken too long to decide on his next course of action. And if he decides to stay back in NDA at this point, he will face a lot of ignominy not just from the voters, but from his own partymen. He tried to bluff the BJP, but his bluff was called,” a BJP functionary said.
The sources also said that the state leadership of BJP is convinced that the alliance will perform well even if Kushwaha leaves NDA and the same has been conveyed to Shah, which explains his reluctance to either address a joint conference with Kushwaha or to give RLSP more than two Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. Shah had, on the other hand, held a joint conference with Kumar, during which he had announced that BJP and JDU would contest an equal number of seats. According to BJP sources, the NDA will do well even without RLSP support as this time, unlike in 2014, it will have the support of the JDU. Kushwaha’s supporters claim that he is the only leader of the Koeri community, which is the largest OBC group in Bihar after Yadavs.
“If we have to choose between Kushwaha and Nitish Kumar, we will obviously go with the JDU. We feel that Kushwaha is settling scores with Kumar and has decided to leave the alliance. Despite being the bigger party, we have made it clear that we are willing to sacrifice some of our seats in the interest of the alliance. Why is Kushwaha so adamant on fighting on more than two seats?” asks a Patna-based party functionary.
Senior Bihar BJP leader and party’s state vice-president Nitish Mishra said that issues related to seat-sharing will be decided by their central leadership. “Discussion on this topic between our party president and Kushwaha ji is already happening and it will not be proper for the state BJP to comment on this issue,” Mishra told The Sunday Guardian.
RLSP, on its part, is still hoping that it will not be “disappointed” by Shah. Attacking CM Kumar, party’s national spokesperson Madhaw Anand said that they are hopeful that Shah and Modi will take the right call on the alliance’s future.
Anand said, “Nitish Kumar is known for breaking parties. He has broken every party, he has broken Ram Vilas Paswan’s party, and more recently, he broke Bihar Congress. He knows that RLSP is his biggest enemy and hence he is doing everything to push us out. Rather than focusing on breaking our party, he should be more concerned about the state of law and order in Bihar which is deteriorating with every passing day.”
“We have made it clear that we will not accept fewer than three seats, there is no question of us sacrificing our seats. Why should we? Did Nitish Kumar give us a place in his Cabinet? As for the meeting between Shah and Kushwaha, that could not take place because of elections; we are sure that both Shah and the PM will take a call at the right time. As for our plan-B, we have offers from other side also. But we want to stay in NDA,” he said.