Rashtriya Lok Samata Party president and Minister of State for Human Resource Development at the Centre Upendra Kushwaha on Thursday skipped the crucial NDA meet over dinner while his party leaders attended the meeting. The NDA had called the meeting of the leaders of alliance partners at Patna’s Gyan Bhawan to put up a united show.
However, hours before the meeting, the Janata Dal (United) rued that the NDA government at the Centre had not treated it in a just manner and asserted that it would contest in not less than 25 seats out of 40 in Bihar in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The JD(U) recently declared that party president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would be the face of the NDA in Bihar during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“Upendra Kushwaha did not attend the meeting as he was busy in some official work”, said RLSP MP from Sitamarhi Ram Kumar Sharma. Mr. Sharma and another party MP from Jehanabad, Arun Kumar, national working president of the party Nagmani and other party leaders were present at the meeting.
Top NDA leaders in Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, attended the meeting. Opposition RJD leaders called it “dinner diplomacy by the BJP to keep its flock together”.
The RLSP has three MPs and two MLAs in the State Assembly. However, hours before the meeting, Mr. Nagmani expressed displeasure over the JD(U)’s declaration of Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA in Bihar in the 2019 polls. “No one in the NDA, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP president Amit Shah, declared it… how could others take this decision without having a meeting with the RLSP”, asked Mr. Nagmani while asserting that “Kushwahas are nearly 10% in Bihar after Yadav caste … so numerically we’re in the second position in the State’s caste arithmetic”. He also suggested that the NDA contest the Bihar Assembly election in 2020 keeping Mr. Kushwaha as its face.
BJP leaders attending the NDA meet said the meeting was called not to discuss seat-sharing but discuss how to win the upcoming Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “To discuss seat settlement, the top leadership of all alliance parties will sit together and decide”, said senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav. Earlier, Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar said: “The NDA will go to the polls with PM Narendra Modi’s face and Nitish Kumar’s work.”
On Wednesday, both Mr. Kumar and Mr. Modi attended the Iftar party hosted by Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan where Mr. Paswan addressed them as Ram and Lakshman. However, earlier in the day, Mr. Paswan’s younger brother, Pashupati Kumar Paras, declared that the LJP would not spare a single seat it won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. His son Chirag Paswan said that besides Mr. Kumar, the NDA had other faces like Ram Vilas Paswan and Mr. Modi for the Lok Sabha poll.