Patna: Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Bihar met Janata Dal (United) parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha in New Delhi, sparking speculations about his possible switch to the saffron party.
On Friday evening, Bihar BJP functionaries Prem Ranjan Patel, Sanjay Tiger and Yogendra Paswan called on Kushwaha at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he is admitted for a routine check-up. A photo of the meeting surfaced on social media, triggering a buzz about Kushwaha’s next political move.
“It was just a courtesy call,” said Patel. “He is an old friend of the BJP and the NDA. That is why we went to meet him.”
While the state BJP said he was welcome to join the party, the JD(U) declined any such move from Kushwaha, who is a member of the Bihar legislative council.
Kushwaha, who was eyeing the deputy chief minister’s post, has been reportedly unhappy with the party for quite some time. “I am neither a sanyasi (hermit) nor sitting in a mutt (monastery). I am sitting in a pavilion, but for how long,” he had said earlier this month amid talks of state cabinet expansion.
He was also snubbed when the JD(U) formed an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) after severing ties with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar last year.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is touring the state as part of his Samadhan Yatra, had replied in negative last week in Madhubani when asked about the possibility of Kushwaha being made deputy CM.
Kushwaha has been an old associate of Nitish Kumar and was made the leader of opposition in the legislative assembly in March 2004. He parted ways with Kumar the next year, joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) before returning to the JD(U) in 2010. He was sent to the Rajya Sabha in 2010, but three years later, he resigned from the JD(U) and the Upper House to float his own party, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP). He joined the NDA before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in which his party won three seats.
However, in March 2021, he again joined hands with Nitish Kumar and merged his party with the JD(U), in what was dubbed as the “Luv-Kush” unity in Bihar (a term used in reference to Kurmi and Koeri castes — the major vote banks of Kumar and Kushwaha, respectively).
“Please ask Upendra Kushwaha ji to talk to me. He has left us a lot of time, I don’t know what he wants. I was not in Patna so I am not aware of it,” Kumar told reporters in Gaya on Saturday when asked about BJP leaders meeting Kushwaha. “He is currently unwell and undergoing treatment in Delhi. People can meet anyone, anytime. I will meet him and discuss this.”
BJP leaders, requesting anonymity, said there was no denying that Kushwaha “is not feeling happy in the JD(U)” after not getting his due. “Him joining the NDA will help in getting the Kushwaha votes,” said a senior BJP leader.
There is also speculation that if Kushwaha does not join the BJP, he might float his own party and join the NDA fold.
“Anybody who is not pleased with the current government, those who opposed the jungle raj regime of Lalu Prasad during 1990-2005 besides those who do not want to be the slave of Lalu -Tejashwi family, the doors of NDA and BJP are open for them,” BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal said on Saturday.
Asked if Nitish Kumar also fits that bill, Jaiswal replied in negative. “He has fallen from grace. No party wants him,” he added.
JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said there was no truth in the rumours. “The CM had said that he will talk to him and everything will be right,” he said.
