Disgruntled Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Upendra Kushwaha, after a two-day “open session” with his supporters, resigned from the party on Monday and formed a new party, the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD). Mr. Kushwaha accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of “mortgaging” the JD(U) to its alliance partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The impact of Mr. Kushwaha’s exit from the JD(U) may have implications for the ruling mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar, and the upcoming 2024 General Elections, especially as the State sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
It’s not for the first time that Mr. Kushwaha has quit an alliance — his career has undergone several such apparently politically expedient turnarounds. The Other Backward Class (OBC) leader of the Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Koeri) community, which commands over 6% of the caste-based votes in Bihar’s electoral landscape, often claims to represent it.
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An old associate of Mr. Kumar, Mr. Kushwaha was made the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly in 2000 but parted ways with the JD(U) in 2005 to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). He returned to the JD(U) in 2010 and became a Rajya Sabha member from the JD(U) but he quit both the party and membership from the Upper House in 2013. He floated the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), which later became part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014, and his party won three Lok Sabha seats. Mr. Kushwaha was made Union Minister of State for Human Resources. In the 2019 General Election and in the 2020 Bihar Assembly poll, his party drew a blank. In March 2021, he merged his party into the JD(U). He was made Chairperson of the JD(U)‘s Parliamentary board, and an MLC.
Soon after Mr. Kushwaha announced his exit from the JD(U) and the founding of his new party on Monday, the JD(U)‘s national president, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, told mediapersons that except the Chief Minister, no other party leader was in favour of Mr. Kushwaha’s return to the party. Referring to Mr. Kushwaha’s return to the JD(U) in March 2021 upon the merger of the RLSP with the JD(U), Mr. Singh said mockingly, “I told Mr. Kumar to ask him for how long he [Mr. Kushwaha] will remain with us this time and Mr. Kushwaha promised to live and die with the party now. It is good to be ambitious but not to be overambitious.”
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Mr. Kushwaha was said to be unhappy with Mr. Kumar’s decision to promote RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as the mahagathbandhan’s face in the 2025 State Assembly elections. “The problem with Nitish Kumar is that he could not promote anyone from his own party to succeed him and today he has to look into his neighbour’s house for it, and this is not acceptable to us,” Mr. Kushwaha said. Mr. Tejashwi Yadav lives in the official residence of his mother, former Chief Minister Rabri Devi. Mr. Kumar and Ms. Devi are neighbours.
“I’ll give up my rebellion if anybody from the Luv-Kush community or from an Extremely Backward Class (EBC) is made leader of the mahagathbandhan but not Tejashwi Yadav,” Mr. Kushwaha said, adding that he wasn’t a claimant for a leadership role in the JD(U).
“The overambitious Mr. Kushwaha wanted Nitish Kumar to project him as his political successor. When that did not happen, he came out of the party to nurse his ambitions through other route. What’s wrong in it? If Nitish Kumar himself has been infamously making turnarounds for power and political conveniences, why should Mr. Kushwaha not do this too?” political analyst Ajay Kumar said.
The buzz in the State’s political circles is that Mr. Kushwaha is acting at the behest of BJP on the promise of “a few Lok Sabha seats” in the 2024 General Elections. “How does it matter whether the BJP or the Muslim League is behind me?” Mr. Kushwaha had earlier said in response to a question from mediapersions.
So, what next for Mr. Kushwaha? “He is expected to contest the next General Elections as an ally of the NDA, and after winning some seats, he may bargain for a Cabinet berth for himself again at the Centre,” Mr. Ajay Kumar said. “However, except for winning a few seats here and there on caste-based support, Mr. Kushwaha can’t much as he has not established himself as the sole leader from his community.”
