PATNA: Even as RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the Union cabinet and quit NDA on Monday, the two MLAs his party has in Bihar openly criticised the decision and announced that they would stay with NDA.
The two MLAs – Lalan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar – claimed the party chief’s decision to walk out of NDA was not supported by a majority of the party’s rank and file. Paswan also urged Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar to include Shekhar in the state cabinet.
With RLSP national vice-president Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha also saying that he and his supporters would continue with NDA, party sources said Upendra Kushwaha would have to work fast and hard to keep the party intact.
“Considering the present condition of UPA in Bihar and its leader, Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, we certainly cannot work with him. Quitting NDA is not the right decision because he (RLSP chief) had got a lot of respect in the alliance,” said Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha.
Sudhanshu Shekhar said he was going to join JD(U) in the next two or three days. “Of the 23 people from RLSP who had contested the 2015 Assembly polls, we two had won. As many as 18 of the rest have decided to continue with NDA,” said Lalan Paswan.
Bihar’s ruling JD(U) and BJP leaders said RLSP’s exit from NDA would have no impact on the alliance’s prospects in next year’s Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly polls due in 2020.