PATNA:The NDA ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP)’s announcement of its president Upendra Kushwaha as the chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar elections has created fissures in the BJP-led alliance.
“A resolution was passed to declare the candidature of party president Upendra Kushwaha for the top post of Bihar as the BJP hasn’t declared any candidate till now,” RLSP general secretary Shivraj Singh told Express on Sunday.
“The party’s two-day executive meeting in Vaishaligarh also endorsed a proposal to contest 67 Assembly seats in the coming elections. We have reached the figure on the basis of the 2010 Assembly elections, when the BJP contested 102 seats and LJP 74,” he said.
The RLSP, which represents the politically important Kushwaha community, doesn’t have any MLA in the Assembly. Other two NDA allies -- the Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha -- have already announced their support to any candidate the BJP names for the post of Chief Minister.
Recently, Union minister Ananth Kumar, who is the BJP’s state incharge, said his party wouldn’t announce any CM candidate ahead of the polls but would instead fight the polls cashing in on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. Later, state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi contradicted him, saying the party would take a decision regarding the CM nominee at an appropriate time. Political observers feel that the RLSP is taking advantage of the uncertainty in the saffron party.