RJD suffers setback in Bihar upper house; Raghuvansh quits party post

The development, which blindsided the RJD, reduced the partys strength in the 75-member Vidhan Parishad to just three

In a huge setback for the RJD in the election year, five of its MLCs Tuesday resigned from the party, forced a split in its legislature group in the Bihar legislative council, and joined the ruling JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The development came on a day when former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, one of the founding members of the RJD and a staunch supporter of its jailed supremo Lalu Prasad, stepped down as national vice president in protest against the proposed induction of one of his rivals.

The five MLCs S M Qamar Alam, Sanjay Prasad,