Even as media reports and hints by politicians indicate that former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha may join the UPA on Thursday, the party of serving Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has signalled its growing impatience with the BJP over seat sharing.
In October, the BJP and JD(U) announced they had reached an agreement to contest an 'equal' number of seats in Bihar, which sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha. It has been speculated the BJP and JD(U) could contest 17 seats each, leaving a total of only six seats for Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Kushwaha, who was minister of state for human resources development, had resigned from the Narendra Modi cabinet on December 10 and the RLSP severed ties with the NDA. PTI reported on Wednesday that Kushwaha was scheduled to meet RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and leaders of the Congress on Thursday in Delhi to formally announce his entry into the UPA.
Kushwaha had been upset at the BJP for declaring the RLSP would be allotted only two seats for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Tejashwi Yadav said, “Things will be clear by evening,you'll get to know... If Upendra Kushwaha ji wants good for country,we've invited him. There have been attempts to crush regional parties, even LJP isn't happy with Modi ji's faction.”
On Wednesday, LJP state chief Pashupati Kumar Paras, younger brother of the Ram Vilas Paswan, had said the party would not settle for anything less than six seats. The LJP had contested seven seats in alliance with the BJP in 2014.
The LJP has reportedly issued an ultimatum to the BJP to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement with it by December 31. On Tuesday, Paswan's son Chirag, a Lok Sabha MP, tweeted that a delay in finalising a seat-sharing pact would result in “losses”.
