2nd round of meeting between Nitish Kumar, RLSP chief leaves everyone guessing

The JD(U), which gave a below-par performance in the assembly elections last year, is exploring all options to expand its number and base.

The meeting between two former close associates, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) president and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on late Sunday evening, second in last two months, has left the political circle agog with speculations of a new political equation developing in the state with the possibility of a merger of RLSP with the JD(U).

File photo: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. (ANI Photo)

Earlier, Kushwaha had met Kumar on December 2, last year, after Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister again. Former JD(U) state president and Rajya Sabha MP Bashistha Narain Singh were also present during the meeting which lasted close to an hour. The meeting is considered important in view of the impending cabinet expansion in Bihar.

The Janata Dal-United JD(U), which gave a below-par performance in the assembly elections last year, is exploring all options to expand its number and base. The party won on 43 seats against 74 won by the BJP. The lone independent MLA has also decided to extend support to the JD(U).

Recently, the five AIMIM MLAs and the lone LJP MLA had also met Kumar leading to another speculation about them joining the JD(U). Kushwaha-led RLSP had contested the last assembly elections in alliance with the AIMIM and the BSP. The lone BSP MLA, Md Jama Khan, who won from Chainpur seat, had joined the JD(U) recently. The AIMIM had won five seats while the BSP could secure just one. The RLSP drew a blank.

“If Kushwaha comes to the JD(U), he is most welcome. Nitish Kumar and Upendra Kushwaha are long-time friends. He is not only a leader of Luv-Kush society but more than that. We have worked together earlier and he never distanced himself from us. This will be good for Bihar politics,” said Singh. “A decision has to be taken by him,” he added.

Kushwaha, who led the tirade against the Nitish Kumar government on different fronts, including education, and has targeted Kumar during the election, described the CM as his “bade bhai (elder brother)” after the meeting.

While refusing to speak on his party’s merger with the JD(U), he said, “We never maintained distance. I have a personal relationship with him.”

Kushwaha, of late, had been supporting Kumar on different issues. The RLSP leader had criticised leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav for making personal attacks on Nitish on the floor of the House during the discussion on the Governor’s address to the joint session of the state assembly and legislative council.

“The kind of ‘abhadra (uncultured)’ language Tejashwi used in the assembly against Nitish is highly condemnable. Is assembly meant for such a ‘radi-betkhauki (tit for tat)’ fight,” he had tweeted.

Kushwaha, at that point, had ruled out his return to the JD(U) by saying, “The statements have nothing to do with the return,” he had said.

JD(U) top functionary believes that the two shaking hands will suit both the leaders, particularly after the JD(U) is finding itself on the back foot with the BJP asserting itself in governance.

The Kushwaha-led party has a sizable support among the Kushwaha voters and was also instrumental in division of traditional votes of the JD(U). Kushwaha had been to assembly and Rajya Sabha on a JD(U) ticket. The RLSP had quit the NDA in December 2018 after the BJP refused to offer more than two seats to the RLSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections even as it went out of the way to accommodate Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).