RLSP vice-prez & ex-minister Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha joins

RLSP national vice president Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha Friday left the party and joined the ruling JD(U) along with his supporters here and asserted that the NDA would win 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Kushwaha joined the JD(U) at party office in the presence of party's state unit president Bashishtha Narayan Singh, Education Minister Krishnandan Prasad Verma and others along with his hundreds of workers and office-bearers of RLSP.

His exit from RLSP may prove to be another jolt for Upendra Kushwaha as his three legislators- Sudhanshu Shekhar, Lalan Paswan and Sanjeev Shyam Singh (ML)- have already announced that they would chart a different path than that of the party head Upendra Kushwaha.

Out of RLSP's three MPs, Jehanabad MP Arun Kumar is a dissident while Sitamarhi MP Ram Kumar Sharma is with the RLSP chief. Upendra Kushwaha is the third MP of the party.

Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, the former Bihar minister, said that "I have left the RLSP and joining JD(U) with RLSP's 35 state level office-bearers and 1200 workers after Upendra Kushwaha decided to leave NDA and join UPA."
Stating that he and his supporters want to be the part of Bihar's development story under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha said that "2019 Lok Sabha election is a challenge and 2020 (assembly elections in the state) is a much bigger challenge but we will win both 2019 and 2020 elections."