Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha on Tuesday hinted that he may continue to sail with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by saying he was “ready to sacrifice” but not before raising the question of exclusion of his party from the Nitish Kumar-led Government in Bihar.
His statement comes even as his recent chance meeting with rival RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav fuelled speculation about a possible tie-up between the two parties.
Kushwaha has decided to put up candidates on 66 seats in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, much to annoyance of the BJP and said more will follow.
Interestingly, the RLSP leader, who has been hobnobbing with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, is said to have been assured of four Lok Sabha seats as against his demand for six seats by the RJD. Kushwaha’s party may get only two Lok Sabha seats under the NDA’s seat sharing formula.
BJP president Amit Shah on last Friday announced that the BJP and the JD(U) will be contesting equal number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls and distribution of seats among four partners will be formally announced in two-three days.
Shah said here in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that all partners will have lesser number of seats than they had last time.
The RLSP head said that he was ready to follow Shah’s call asking allies to “sacrifice” their number of Lok Sabha seats in Bihar but at the same time sought to know why his party was not made a partner in the Nitish Kumar-led Government.
The RLSP leader, whose meeting with RJD's Tejashwi Yadav last week sparked speculation over his future course of action, said he wanted a “respectable” number of seats to fight in the State.
Kushwaha, who met BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, made it clear that a final seat-sharing deal has not been clinched yet but dropped hints to suggest he may remain part of the BJP-led-NDA.
“I have said it that it is in the interest of the country that Narendra Modi is elected Prime Minister for another term. I will be working for this,” the Minister of State for HRD told reporters here.
However, his differences with Nitish came to the fore as he aired his anguish at his party not being offered a ministerial post in the State Government after Kumar joined the NDA last year.
"We are ready for sacrifice," he said, referring to Shah's comments last week that the BJP's two allies, the Lok Janshakti Party and the RLSP, will have to agree to fight on a fewer number of seats in 2019 than they did in the 2014 polls to accommodate the JD(U).
"Partnership should be equal in profit as well as loss," he said. While BJP and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP had joined Kumar's Government, the RLSP had not.
His talks with Yadav were "good and cordial", he said, adding that he had expressed his sentiments to the BJP leader, who is BJP's in-charge for Bihar.
If needed he will meet Shah and also Prime Minister Modi to clinch a respectable deal for his party, he said. Sources said the BJP has offered two seats to Kushwaha, whose party contested three seats in 2014 and won them all.
Though he has not spoken about the number of seats he wanted to contest, his party leaders have been seeking a larger share than 2014. The RLSP leader played down his differences with Kumar when questioned and referred to him as his "elder brother".
He said it was a coincidence that he met RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav the same day Shah met Kumar and announced that the BJP and the JD(U) will fight on equal number of seats in Bihar.
"We both happened to stay in the Government's circuit house following our respective events in Arwal (Bihar). Tejashwi Yadav came to my room. There was nothing political," he said, adding that they held no private talks and many people were there.
The BJP, JD(U), LJP and RLSP will understandably contest around 16, 16, five and two seats respectively. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats.
