India News | Months After Quitting RLSP, Madhaw Anand Announces Return

Patna, Dec 18 (PTI) RLSP leader Madhaw Anand, who had quit the party ahead of the Bihar assembly elections voicing disapproval of Upendra Kushwaha's disastrous poll alliance with Mayawati's BSP and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, on Friday announced his return, retaining his top post.

Anand, who has in the past few years emerged as the most visible face of the RLSP in the media, claimed that his respect for Kushwaha had never waned, and he was back in public life after staying away for a while because of personal reasons.

"Had been away from active politics because of personal and family reasons. But, as per directions of RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, I am back as the party's principal national secretary general," Anand tweeted early in the morning, tagging the former Union minister who had founded the party and a number of media outlets.

Later, he told a news channel that his resignation had "never been accepted" by Kushwaha with whom he remained in touch all through, with "love and respect remaining undiminished".

Anand was said to have been busy, before the assembly polls, striking a deal with the NDA for the RLSP's return to the coalition comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and the BJP, which had similarly accommodated ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM.

However, after pulling out of the RJD-led Grand Alliance, Kushwaha forged an alliance with the BSP, AIMIM and some smaller parties, all of which declared the RLSP president as the "chief ministerial" candidate.

Known for his acute sense of the realpolitik, Anand, who is in his late 30s, announced his resignation from the RLSP and followed it up with a detailed interaction with Tejashwi Yadav, fuelling speculations that he might switch over to the RJD.

The savvy politician had, however, denied the speculations and asserted that he had "personal and family relations" with the family of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

His return to RLSP comes close on the heels of Kushwaha's recent meeting with Nitish Kumar, which is being seen as an attempt on the part of both leaders to leave past differences aside and start afresh.

Kumar, who is back as chief minister, has been bristling at the JD(U)'s dismal performance in the assembly polls and said to be willing to make all efforts to avoid ceding the upper hand to the BJP, which returned with a much better tally.

However, when Anand was asked about the possibility of the RLSP, verily a splinter group of the JD(U), joining hands with the parent outfit, he replied cryptically, "the bonding of Nitish Kumar and Upendra Kushwaha has been an immensely successful one in the politics of Bihar. There is nothing concrete as of now, but politics is all about possibilities".

Kushwaha is a Koeri by caste while Kumar is a Kurmi, numerically smaller but socio-economically more influential. The JD(U) chief had built his own constituency, revolting against Lalu Prasad and his MY (Muslim Yadav combine), by taking Kurmis and Koeris along.

The new caste arithmetic worked out by Kumar is known, in the political lexicon of Bihar, as 'Luv Kush', named after the two sons of Lord Rama, in keeping with the propensity of post-Mandal forces to draw upon Hindu mythology.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)