Anyway today the three alliance partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party––Lok Janshakti Party, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha––are unique among themselves.
The BJP formed an alliance with them and left 80-odd seats for them in the October-November 2015 Assembly election. It left so many seats to them notwithstanding the fact that LJP and RLSP had not a single MLA in the Bihar Assembly then.
LJP, RLSP and HAM together won only five out of these 80-odd seats.
Seven months after the disastrous defeat one of the constituents, RLSP, is heading for self-destruction. Party chief Upendra Kushwaha––whom prime minister Narendra Modi made minister of state for human resources development––last week dissolved his party’s Bihar unit. His state party chief Arun Kumar––one of the three MPs––openly accused him of running the party like a dictator. The president of the Kisan Cell of the party wrote to the prime minister calling for a probe into the alleged Hawala link of Upendra Kushwaha.
Political observers wonder as to what type of party is this where such a serious charge is being levelled against a Union minister. Thus he has become an embarrassment for the BJP as well as prime minister Narendra Modi.
Upendra Kushwaha has the distinction of losing election in his own Assembly constituency when he contested as the Janata Dal (United) candidate in November 2005––the election which brought Nitish Kumar to power. He was the leader of opposition in the state Assembly then.
He tried to form a sort of Koeri-Bhumihar alliance but it yielded no result. Unlike 2014 election in which Modi factor worked, in 2015 the Koeri votes largely went to the Grand Alliancce.
In the past few years he had joined many parties and alliances before finally forming RLSP and jumping on the Narendra Modi bandwagon.
Some Bihar-watchers are of the view that they would be surprised if Upendra survives the likely reshuffle of the cabinet by Narendra Modi.
Kushhwaha has lost his bargaining position. If he is dropped from the cabinet he and his party would be in a deep trouble.
Patna,(BiharTimes): A party is known by the alliance partners it keeps. But in this era of alliance- and party-hopping one does not know who joins hands with whom.