Upendra Kushwaha, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief, on Thursday, joined hands with United Progressive Alliance (UPA,) the Mahagathbandhan, in Bihar.
Upendra Kushwaha, who was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA,) resigned from the Party on the 10th of December.
Mr. Kushwaha received a warm welcome from the UPA leaders at a press conference held yesterday. The leaders present during the announcement of the alliance were Ahmed Patel, a senior Congress leader, Shakisinh Gohel, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge, Sharad Yadav, a Janata Dal (United) (JD [U]) leader, Tejaswi Yadav, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader, Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader and Madan Mohan Jha, the Bihar Congress President.
Mr. Kushwaha addressed the press conference held at the Delhi headquarters of the UPA and said, “We have many options and UPA was one of them. The wholeheartedness shown by Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Yadav is one of the reasons I joined, but the biggest reason I’m here is the people of Bihar.” He further praised Rahul Gandhi as a leader and said, Rahul Gandhi has evolved into a mature leader and is ready to replace Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India.
With the alliance between the RLSP and the UPA, the opposition in Bihar, the NDA, will face stiff competition in the Lok Sabha elections, 2019.
Tejaswi Yadav, a RJD leader, targeted the NDA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying, “Modi Ji, promised Rs 1.25 lakh crore financial assistance to Bihar in his campaign. Where is it? Not even a penny has come Bihar’s way and my Chacha (uncle) Nitish Kumar appears to have no problem with it.”
According to the rules of the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, a total of 40 members from Bihar can contest the elections.
An initial report says, the UPA will contest for 40 Lok Sabha seats, out of which 18 to 20 will be given to RJD, 8 to 12 to the Congress party and 4 to 5 seats to the RLSP. On the other hand, the NDA has a strategy of sharing 50:50 seats between the BJP and Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar and the other seats will be left for the smaller parties in the alliance.
