Patna, December 15: In a major setback to RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha, all three legislators of his party in the Bihar assembly on Saturday announced that they will remain with BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The rebel RLSP legislators also accused Upendra Kushwaha of pursuing personal interests in announcing a break up with the coalition.

At a joint press conference, both the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) MLAs– Sudhanshu Shekhar and Lalan Paswan– and its lone MLC Sanjiv Singh Shyam announced their separation from Kushwaha and vowed to approach approach the Election Commission with the claim that we represent the real RLSP and we enjoy the support of most workers and office-bearers in the party. RLSP Chief Upendra Kushwaha Resigns From Union Council of Ministers.

"We had been stating since long that we were in favour of the RLSP remaining in the NDA but Kushwaha, who was more interested in his personal gains, paid no heed," Shyam said at the press conference. The RLSP MLC accused Kushwaha of showing laxity when ministerial berths were being allocated among allies. "He was happy with his own ministerial berth at the Centre," he said.

While pitching for a ministerial berth for Shekhar, Shyam said neither he nor Paswan wants ministerial berths. "We would like Sudhanshu Shekhar’s inclusion in the state council of ministers and we would be hugely disappointed if he is not considered for the same," he said, as reported by PTI. Kushwaha has been facing a revolt from his party leaders since he hinted at breaking ties with the NDA over seat-sharing issues.

RLSP which fought the 2014 general election as well the 2015 state polls as a NDA constituent has altogether three MPs, including Kushwaha, two MLAs and One MLC in Bihar. Among the two Lok Sabha members–Arun Kumar from Jehanabad and Ram Kumar Sharma from Sitamarhi–the former has been charting an independent course for past two years.

Kushwaha had been unhappy since the BJP president Amit Shah announced that the saffron party and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) would contest an equal number of seats in 2019 general elections. Although Kushwaha and Kumar share a similar social base, BJP's increasing closeness with the JD(U) has left the RLSP chief fuming.

BJP reportedly offered RLSP two Lok Sabha seats for the 2019 election, but Kushwaha was not ready to settle for anything less than four seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA had won 31 out of 40 parliamentary seats. While the JD(U), which quit the alliance just before the polls, could bag just two seats, RLSP had bagged three. Kushwaha on Monday quit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 15, 2018 06:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).