Patna: Rumblings are likely in Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) as several leaders of his party may join Bihar chief minister’s Nitish Kumar camp.
The development comes a month after RLSP leader Nagmani was removed from the post of national executive president for indulging in anti-party activities.
Talking to this newspaper on Monday, Mr Nagmani said, “Most of the RLSP leaders a-re not comfortable an-d have decided to quit the party. Around 80 per cent of RLSP leaders will resign from the party on Tuesday.”
There is a buzz that Mr Nagmani is trying to persuade the JD(U) leadership to field him from te Karakat Lok Sabha constituency against Upendra Kushwaha. JD(U) insiders, however, said that “there are many strong candidates but the party is currently busy discussing seat allocations with other NDA partners”.
Earlier on several occasions, Mr Nagm-ani had accused the RLSP leadership of selling Lok Sabha tickets to “candidates who had no political backing”.
He said, “The Motih-ari ticket has been pr-omised to somebody who offered '9 crore to Kushwaha”.
However, senior RLSP leader Jitendra Nath dismissed Mr Nagmani’s allegations and blamed Mr Kumar of fuelling a crisis by conspiring to split the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Sources said that Mr Nagmani wanted two tickets, one for himself and the other for his wife, and when the party turned down his request, he launched a campaign against Mr Kushwaha.
“Efforts are being made to destroy the RLSP in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Everyone is aware that Mr Kumar is trying to engineer a split by wooing our leaders,” RLSP leader Jitendra Nath said.
The revolt in the RLSP had begun after Mr Kushwaha walked out of NDA in December last year over seat-sharing differences with the BJP leadership. In the last two months, four RLSP leaders, including two of his MLAs Lalan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar, have left the party.
Political analysts see this as a major setback to Mr Kushwaha who is trying to bargain with the RJD and Congress for a “sizeable seat share” to contest in the general elections. Sources claim that the RJD has offered four seats to Mr Kushwaha.
