RLSP’s Upendra Kushwaha quits as minister from cabinet, says 'PM Modi did not live upto expectations'

NEW DELHI: Upset over the seat-sharing formula for the 2019 national polls, RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha on Monday sent his resignation to Prime Minister Modi. During a press conference, he said that PM Narendra Modi did not live upto the expectations. He said, "Unfortunate that govt's priority is not to work for poor but to fix political opponents." His resignation from BJP-led NDA is likely to trigger a realignment of political equations in Bihar. Kushwaha also levied serious allegations on the government and said that the government is running RSS agenda."PMO and BJP president are running investigating agencies. Decisions are not being taken by ministers but by Amit Shah and PMO." he said. Upendra Kushwaha is likely to join the meeting called by the opposition parties. The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief has 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 equal number of seats. Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party is expected to join hands with the opposition, which includes Lalu Prasad's RJD and the Congress. Bihar sends 40 MPs to Lok Sabha. Kushwaha’s RLSP is a part of the BJP-led alliance in Bihar JDU) and LJP. Kushwaha, a former JDU leader who had quit the party in 2013, months after suspension on disciplinary grounds, had floated his own outfit and joined the NDA while Nitish Kumar's party was out of the BJP-led coalition. The RLSP had contested on three seats under the NDA banner in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and had won on all the seats. Kushwaha himself had won from the Karakat seat.