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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Madan Kumar | TNN

'Every person has right to go', says Nitish Kumar on Upendra Kushwaha's growing closeness with BJP

PATNA: JD(U)’s national parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha’s countdown in the party seems to have started as Bihar CM and party’s de facto leader Nitish Kumar, while responding to a query about Kushwaha, on Saturday said that every people has the right to go wherever he/she wants.

Kushwaha, who is currently admitted to AIIMS-Delhi for a routine check-up, was on Friday visited by state BJP’s three leaders including Prem Ranjan Patel, Sanjay Singh Tiger and Yogendra Paswan, triggering a speculation about the JD(U) leader’s return to the BJP-led NDA fold. Kushwaha’s erstwhile party RLSP was earlier an ally of the NDA and he himself served as Union minister of state for HRD in the Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2018.

Asked about Kushwaha’s growing closeness with the BJP, Nitish said, “He (Kushwaha) went out of the party two to three times and again returned on his own. What is his wish? I am not aware of it. I was told he is unwell. Right now, I am out of Patna. I will inquire about his health. But now some talks are going around about him. Every person has the right to go (wherever he/she wants).”

Responding to media queries during his ‘Samadhan Yatra’ in Gaya district, the CM also said that Kushwaha met him recently and he was speaking in favour of the party. “But still if there is any thought in his mind, I am not aware of it. I will ask him what the matter is when he returns after being recovered from illness,” Nitish said.

Kushwaha’s differences with JD(U) leadership grew recently after the former projected himself as the main contender for the post of second deputy chief minister in the grand alliance government. But the CM poured cold waters on Kushwaha’s ambition after he declared that no leaders from the JD(U) would be inducted in his ministry in the forthcoming cabinet expansion.

Earlier in March 2021, Kushwaha formally merged his 8-year old Rashtriya Lok Samata Party into JD(U). Soon after the merger, Kushwaha was appointed the party’s national parliamentary board chairperson. He was later made a member of the legislative council (MLC).

Kushwaha’s supporters claimed that their leader agreed to merge the RLSP into the JD(U) after the JD(U) leadership reportedly assured that Kushwaha would be given key posts in the party as well as the government.

Insiders in the JD(U) said Kushwaha became desperate after Nitish openly announced that the RJD leader and deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav would lead the seven-party Mahagathbandhan in the 2015 assembly election.

Reacting over Kushwaha’s political adversity, BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand on Saturday alleged that Kushwaha was once again cheated by the JD(U) leadership. “Nitish Ji wants Kushwaha community to be dependent on him and no person of this community to be leader, so he used and threw Upendra Ji. Nitish Ji's kitchen cabinet quartet engaged in the campaign against Kushwaha also won,” Anand said in a tweet.

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