Estranged Janata Dal (United) leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from the party and announced the launch of a new political outfit – the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD). The decision to float a new party came following a two-day convention of party workers in Patna that began on Sunday.
“We’ve decided to form a new party – Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal. This has been decided unanimously. I’ve been made its national president. The party will take forward the legacy of Karpoori Thakur. We’ll work towards rejecting the agreement made with RJD,” Kushwaha said addressing reporters at a press conference.
Kushwaha, who has been appointed the president of the newly floated party, said he is also resigning as a JD(U) MLC. Kushwaha’s break-up from the JD(U) is the third since 2009. In 2021, he merged the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party with the JD(U).
A new political inning begins today. Barring a few, everyone in JD(U) was expressing concern… A meeting was held with elected colleagues and a decision was taken…Nitish Kumar did well in the beginning. The path on which he has started walking is bad for him and Bihar.”
Kushwaha further said that the Chief Minister was not acting of his own volition and instead relying on suggestions from people around him. “He’s unable to act on his own today because he never made an effort to make a successor…Had Nitish Kumar chosen a successor, he needn’t have looked at neighbours for one,” Kushwaha said, in an apparent reference to Nitish’s refusal to appoint the former Parliamentary Board chairman as the Deputy CM.
Kushwaha has been at loggerheads with Nitish ever since the CM dumped the BJP to form a government in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in August last year. Later in the year, Nitish announced that the JD(U)-RJD alliance will contest the 2025 assembly elections under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav.
Kushwaha had earlier alleged that Nitish had struck a special deal with the RJD while forming the government in August 2020. The actions of the Chief Minister, Kushwaha had alleged, were weakening the party.