KUSHWAHA QUITS NDA GOVT, SAYS DEJECTED BY LEADERSHIP
NEW DELHI/PATNA: Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) leader Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the Union council of ministers and walked out of the ruling Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday, criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what he called was a “nondemocratic” style of leadership.
Kushwaha, who announced his decision at a press conference in Delhi a day before the commencement of Parliament’s winter session, said he was keeping all options open, including teaming up with the Opposition.
Kushwaha’s relations with NDA ally and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had been under strain. An Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, Kushwaha was upset with an arrangement that aimed to distribute equal number of seats between the BJP and Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in Bihar for next year’s general elections. “Contesting fewer seats would have meant [for RLSP] that our voice would not have been heard inside Parliament,” Kushwaha said, spelling out why he was not happy with the seat-sharing proposal.
In a two-page resignation letter, Kushwaha, the former Union minister of state for human resource development, said he was “dejected and betrayed” by Modi’s leadership. He added that “unprecedented injustice” had been done to Bihar, stressing the state was not granted special category status as promised.
“There has been a fundamental conflict in what you have promised to the people before elections and what you have actually delivered,” Kushwaha wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister. “You have systematically dismantled the functioning of the cabinet…,” the letter said. “The Union cabinet has been reduced to a mere rubber stamp, simply endorsing your decision without any deliberation.”
Kushwaha’s RLSP was a part of the NDA in the 2014 general elections, when the JD(U) fought independently against the coalition that swept to power. Kumar, who parted ways with the NDA in 2013, returned to the alliance last year.
Both Kumar, who fought the assembly elections in alliance with Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Kushwaha claim to have a sway over OBC voters. The RLSP leader is influential among the Kuswaha community, which accounts for 6.4% of Bihar’s population.
In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contested 30 seats (and won 22), while partners Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the RSLP contested seven (won six) and three (won all three), respectively. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats. This time the BJP said it will contest same number of seats at the JD(U), indicating that it will take a cut.
In Delhi, Kushwaha said he had three options: to contest the next parliamentary election on his own, to join the Opposition alliance that the RJD and the Congress are trying to cobble up in Bihar, or to float a new unit. “We will take a call after a consultation within our party. There is still time left for the parliamentary election. But, we will take a decision soon,” he said.
At a book release in the Capital on the same day, BJP president Amit Shah said, “There is a difference between taking firm decisions and being autocrat. Modi takes firm decisions.”
The BJP’S Bihar unit said Kushwaha wanted to “hide his individual failure as a minister”. “It’s really sad that Upendra Kushwaha-ji mentioned the name of our Prime Minister. As for development in Bihar, the Union government has ensured all possible help to the state,” said party spokesperson Nikhil Anand.
The JD(U) said Kushwaha’s exit will not have much of an impact on the alliance. “The JD(U) has no alliance with the RLSP,” said JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh.
DM Diwakar, a social scientist associated with AN Sinha Institute for Social Sciences in Patna, said, “His resignation will definitely give the NDA a jolt when it comes to backward class votes.”
There has been a fundamental conflict in what you have promised to the people before elections and what you have actually delivered... UPENDRA KUSHWAHA, RLSP leader (in his letter to the PM)