Make Kushwaha NDA's CM candidate in Bihar: RLSP

BJP's Bihar ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) today passed a resolution demanding that its president and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha be made NDA's chief ministerial candidate in the poll-bound state.
The resolution was passed at the party's two-day executive meet in Vaishali in Bihar where it also endorsed a proposal to fight in 67 seats in the Assembly election, likely to be held in September-October this year, RLSP chief spokesperson Shivraj Singh told PTI.
Kushwaha was also present in the executive meet.
BJP, which is yet to finalise its seat-sharing agreement with its allies, is unlikely to concede to the RLSP demands but this move by the regional outfit is seen as a ploy to increase its bargaining power in the run up to the polls.

RLSP has been pushing for Kushwaha's name as the NDA chief ministerial candidate claiming that he can effectively counter Nitish-Lalu combine's appeal among the backward caste as he hails from the politically significant Kushwaha community and has a record of fighting for OBC empowerment.
BJP's other allies like Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha have already declared their support to any BJP candidate as the alliance's CM nominee, saying the saffron party has the right to chose the NDA's chief ministerial face as it was the largest alliance partner.
BJP is yet to decide on a CM candidate with many leaders in the party of the view that it would be best to go to polls under a collective leadership.