Upendra Kushwaha quits JD(U) two years after merger, floats new party
The politician’s exit comes after Nitish Kumar announced Tejashwi Yadav as the next candidate for the post of chief minister.
Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Monday announced his resignation from the Janata Dal (United) and floated a new party, the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, reported PTI.
Kushwaha’s split from the party comes over two months after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that his deputy Tejashwi Yadav will lead the Grand Alliance in the 2025 state elections.
The alliance consists of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United), Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, and Communist Party of India (Marxist).
This is the second time Kushwaha has split from the Janata Dal (United). In 2013, the politician had left the party to float the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party. However, in March 2021 he had returned to Kumar’s party.
Kushwaha’s exit comes months after the JD(U) left the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party to return to the Grand Alliance.
On Monday Kushwaha said that he was worried about the future of Bihar as Kumar did not take his advice to keep the alliance’s leadership in his own hands.
“Before the alliance, I had asked Nitish Kumar to keep the leadership of the alliance with himself because I knew that if the leadership [is] out of his hands, the old situation will prevail,” Kushwaha said, according to ANI. “...Days after forging an alliance, Nitish Kumar said that he wants to give the responsibility of Bihar to the RJD leader. He announced the name of an RJD leader as the next chief minister of Bihar, because of which we were worried about the future of Bihar.”
On Monday, Kushwaha also alleged that Kumar’s political choices are not his own since he did not choose a successor from within the party.
The former Union minister, however, did not say whether he would form an alliance with the BJP in the next Assembly elections. “I have learnt a few lessons from my big brother, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had resigned from his post citing differences with the RJD, only to form a new government (with BJP) hours later,” he said, reported PTI.