JD(U) warns RLSP chief Kushwaha against targeting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Upendra Kushwaha, Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief demanded that the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should bring out his political DNA report to the public. This created another row in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In response to his comment, leaders of the Janata Dal (United) warned Kushwaha against making such comment and asked him to stay within his limits and maintain decorum.

Kushwaha’s comment was cognisant of PM Narendra Modi’s election rally in Bihar, July 2015. PM Modi had questioned Kumar’s political DNA, when he had parted ways with the NDA two year prior. Nitish Kumar had then fought the 2015 Bihar assembly elections in an alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress before finally returning to the NDA again in 2017.

“Kushwaha has made an irrelevant, prejudiced statement which is undignified and uncalled for. He is now into a habit of making provocative statements. JD(U) disapproves such kind of politics. Our party never makes statements which are preconceived and prejudiced. He should refrain from such acts,” said JD(U) state president Bashistha Narain Singh in a Hindustan Times report. Several other JD(U) leaders also cautioned Kushwaha.

During the state assembly campaign in 2015, the JD(U) had seized the remark that PM Modi had made to win their voters over, referring to it as an insult to the people of Bihar.

On Saturday, November 3, Nitish Kumar had responded sternly to reporters while addressing the media regarding Kushwaha’s claims.

“Baatchit ka sthar itna neeche mat giraeeye (don’t allow the level of discourse to stoop so low),” Kumar retorted.

Bihar's ruling Janata Dal (United) also rejected Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha's claim that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not wish to continue to lead the state beyond 2020.

Kushwaha, who heads the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, claimed that Nitish Kumar had reached a "saturation point in power and he wants to step down".

Senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Minister Maheshwar Hazari countered Kushwaha’s claim and said that Nitish Kumar will continue to be the Chief Minister for another term, after the current tenure ends in 2020.

Hazari said “There is no vacancy for the Chief Minister's post in Bihar.”

Sanjay Singh, another JD(U) leader, said that Nitish Kumar will remain the Chief Minister for 15 more years. "It is useless to say that Nitish Kumar wants to step down".

Kushwaha had described Nitish Kumar as his elder brother and said he knew the Chief Minister better than anyone else.

Disregarding the JD(U)‘s note of caution, the RLSP seems to be interested in taking it’s alliance partner head-on.

“Nitish Kumar is upset with the growing stature of Kushwaha,” said party’s spokesperson Madhav Anand. “The JD(U) has lost its base,” he added to Hindustan Times.

The BJP on the other hands hopes that peace will prevail between the two alliance partners, who also happen to be running the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP.

The ties between the two NDA allies haven’t been too kindly of late. Kushwaha targeted the Nitish Kumar government on it’s education and law and order situation in Bihar.

The RJD took the matter further by asking for the report on Nitish Kumar’s political DNA test to be made a public matter.

“Bihar’s people have the right to know outcome of the DNA tests,” said RJD MLA Bhai Birendra, referring to mass samples sent to New Delhi by Kumar’s party after the DNA jibe by PM Modi.

Kushwaha was a JD(U) leader, but fell out with Nitish Kumar in 2013 and formed his own political party.