Kushwaha presents 25 demands

PATNA: Failing to make up with chief minister Nitish Kumar after Kumar allegedly called his behaviour “neech” (lowly), union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha has made his reconciliation with the chief minister (and, by extension, continuation in the national Democratic Alliance) conditional on the state meeting a 25-point ‘Charter of Demands’ he has placed before it.

“I am ready to forgive and forget everything, the insults heaped on me personally and the short-changing of my party on the issue of seats, if the government in Bihar assures me that it will work on my 25-point charter of demands. As the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, I value improving education above everything else,” he said.

Kushwaha’s party has three members in the Lok Sabha and it is likely that it will be allowed to fight only two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Bihar sends 40 members to Parliament .

The Janata Dal (United) and the JLP are also part of the BJPled NDA. The BJP and the JD(U) have already announced that they will contest an equal number of seats from Bihar.

The JLP has six members in Parliament. Since the announcement by the two parties, there has been speculation that the RLSP will see itself edged out in seat adjustments.

Kushwaha’s charter includes the appointment of school teachers through the Bihar Public Service Commission, the re-evaluation of teaching staff appointed since 2003, exempting teachers from all non-teaching work, making 75% attendance for students mandatory, the modernisation of madrasas and the timely holding of students’ union elections.The JD (U) ridiculed Kushwaha’s demands.

“The advice has come at the end of the innings when the mandatory overs are on. He won’t be able to get any extra funds from the Centre ,” said Bihar’s education minister Krishna Nandan Verma.