Upendra Kushwaha meets Ahmed Patel: Is NDA ‘deserter' planning to side with Congress?

New Delhi, Dec 15: Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha, who snapped ties with the NDA and resigned as union minister from the Modi cabinet last month, on Saturday met Congress MP Ahmed Patel at the latter's residence in New Delhi.

Kushwaha had severed ties with the BJP over the issue of seat sharing in Bihar for next year's Lok Sabha elections. It is not known if Kushwaha is considering joining the UPA but he surely is getting closer to the opposition. He may attend future joint opposition meetings during which plans to stop Modi from coming back to power in 2019 are discussed.

Kushwaha is also facing a revolt from within RLSP. All its members in the Bihar Assembly declared that they were still with the NDA as they accused Kushwaha of pursuing personal interests in announcing a break-up with the coalition.

Both Rashtriya Lok Samata Party MLAs - Sudhanshu Shekhar and Lalan Paswan - and its lone MLC Sanjiv Singh Shyam made a statement to this effect at a joint press conference in Patna.

Upendra Kushwaha resigned on December 10 as Minister of State for Human Resource Development, after a prolonged battle with the BJP and other constituents over seat-sharing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.