Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday accused the BJP of bowing down in front of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over seat sharing, saying the move would not help the party win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“The BJP always used to say they have a 56-inch chest, but now it seems they’ve bowed down in front of Nitish Kumar and divided seats equally. But people do not care about how many seats you contest on, they will vote for the one who works for the public," Kushwaha said.
Taking a dig at LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Kushwaha said the Union minister realised that the NDA would not be getting any Lok Sabha seat so he secured a Rajya Sabha seat. “It’s a good thing that he has done," the RLSP chief said.
Kushwaha recently quit the NDA and joined the Congress's Mahagathbandhan in Delhi. Explaining his rationale for joining the Grand Alliance, Kushwaha said the Modi government failed to fulfil the promises made to the people of Bihar, besides the "insult" he suffered within the NDA. Kushwaha lauded Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Prasad for the "wholeheartedness" shown by them towards him.
"We had said we have many options and UPA was one of them. The wholeheartedness shown by Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Prasad is one of the reasons I joined but the biggest reason I'm here is the people of Bihar," said Kushwaha.
On seat-sharing arrangement with the UPA, Kushwaha said, "We will take the right decision at the right time." He said an "aakrosh march" will be taken out in Patna on February 2 in which various like-minded parties would participate. Kushwaha lauded Rahul Gandhi for coming to the aid of farmers and youths and said the Congress President does what he says.
Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also took a jibe at the BJP for agreeing to contest only 17 seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls next year, despite having won 22 in the last general election.
The LJP and the JD(U) have reaped the benefit of questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation two years after the note ban, Yadav said in a tweet. His remark was a reference to Paswan's son and LJP Parliamentary Board Chief Chirag Paswan recently writing to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and requesting him to elucidate the benefits of demonetisation so that his party could explain the same to its voters.
Moreover, Kumar who had come out in support of demonetisation while still part of the opposition's 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance), remarked earlier this year that the drive could not achieve its objective of curbing black money and blamed the banking sector for it.
Taking a dig at the BJP, Yadav tweeted that despite having achieved power through the back door in Bihar and having 22 sitting MPs, the party agreed to give an equal number of seats to Kumar, who had returned with a tally of only two seats. "Now you can understand the dire straits the NDA is in," the Rashritya Janata Dal (RJD) leader said.
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