Kushwaha, while addressing media persons after party's state executive meet in Patna, refused to disclose the details of the seat sharing dialogues within the alliance before his set deadline
Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday gave an ultimatum to ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to agree upon the final seat sharing agreement for the 2019 general election by November 30, saying that the present offer was "not respectable".
Kushwaha, while addressing media persons after party's state executive meet in Patna, refused to disclose the details of the seat sharing dialogues within the alliance before his set deadline.
He said he will no longer take any initiative to hold talks with any BJP leader except Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It was because of the PM that I joined the alliance. I will meet him and tell him everything…," he said. Party leaders said Kushwaha was upset over his two futile attempts to meet BJP president Amit Shah this week.
The RLSP chief said that the NDA would have to pay a heavy price if the deadlock over seat sharing continues, though he did not elaborate on it. Kushwaha, who holds a sway over almost Koeri voters (about 5% per cent of total voters) in Bihar, said the number of seats offered by the BJP were not accepted by the party leaders at Saturday's meet.
Notably, party MLAs Lallan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar, were missing from the party's state executive meet. Sources say the two are in talks with the CM Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), and may switch over if the rife within the RLSP continues.
JD(U)'s "efforts to break the RLSP" has not gone down well with the party chief who has openly said that he was a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but had nothing to do with the JD(U). "Such acts can only be condemned and Nitish Kumar should avoid such tactics," Kushwaha said and claimed that a section of Bihar NDA leaders did not want to see Narendra Modi return for a second term as the PM.
He attacked the state government saying incidents of murder, loot and rape had increased and law and order had worsened, "but no one seems to be noticing it." "RLSP leaders have been murdered but nothing has happened about it," he said.
Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha constituencies and the BJP and JD-U have already reached on an agreement to fight on equal number of seats though the final figures have not been announced yet. The fourth ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has also asked the BJP to finalise the matter at the earliest.
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