RLSP chief and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Monday said he wanted no truck with the RJD after its leader Tejashwi Yadav invited him to join the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) in Bihar.
Talks of discontent within the NDA in Bihar were fuelled on Sunday when neither Chief minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP nor anyone from the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) attended an iftar party hosted by the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP). The incident prompted RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to ask RLSP chief and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha to switch sides and join the alliance led by his party as the latter was “neglected” in the NDA for the last four years.
Avowing his loyalty to his coalition partners, the BJP and the JD(U), Kushwaha said the RJD was trying to drive a wedge in the NDA and asserted that he would not be quitting the ruling alliance under any circumstances. “RJD has lost its base. To find a base, they are making such statements but they mean nothing to me. It’s necessary for Modi Ji to remain PM in the interest of the nation. He will be PM next time too,” Kushwaha told a news source.
There were talks of discontent in the NDA after Kushwaha excused himself from a get-together of the coalition at Patna on Thursday. The Union minister had downplayed his absence, saying it was because of some “personal reasons” and asserted that the coalition was intact.
Kushwaha turned down RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s invitation and asserted that he was in the NDA and working to make Narendra Modi the prime minister again after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
