'Dejected' and 'betrayed' by PM Modi's leadership: BJP ally Upendra Kushwaha resigns as Union Minister

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from his post as Union Minister, in a setback to NDA in Bihar.

The development comes hours after the RLSP leader said that he will not participate in the meeting of NDA allies today.

Kushwaha, in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he was "dejected" and "betrayed" by the PM's leadership, reported PTI quoting party sources.

"It is unfortunate that the government's priority is not to work for the poor and oppressed, but to fix political opponents by hook or crook," Kushwaha said in the letter.

The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief had been targeting the BJP and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a key ally of the ruling party, for weeks.

He has been upset with the BJP after it asserted that the RLSP would not be given more than two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, even as it went out of way to accommodate Kumar by agreeing that the saffron party and the JD(U) would fight the equal number of seats. 

Bihar sends 40 MPs to Lok Sabha. RSLP fought on three seats in 2014, however, Kushwaha demanded more for the upcoming elections citing that his party has grown in strength.

On November 17, he had asked the BJP to reach a consensus over the seat-sharing agreement.

A meeting between Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav and Kushwaha had set political circles abuzz with a possibility of the two parties siding with each other. Kushwaha later clarified that no political meaning should be derived out of it.