We are with National Democratic Alliance: RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha

Rajgir (Bihar): A day after meeting Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav setting off speculation, RLSP chief and Union Minister of State for HRD Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday maintained that he and his party are in NDA. “We are in NDA and we want to see (Narendra) Modi as the Prime Minister again after 2019 polls. Modi is must for the country,” Kushwaha told the media here.

Kushwaha also dismissed speculation about the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party leaving the National Democratic Alliance to join the Grand Alliance of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress for the Lok Sabha polls next year. “I have spoken to BJP president Amit Shah and am likely to meet him soon over seat sharing because the seat-sharing formula has not been finalised yet,” he said.

Kushwaha’s statement may be a big relief for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA as Kushwaha had met Tehashwi Yadav on Friday at the circuit house in Arwal district hours after Shah announced in Delhi that the BJP and JD-U will contest an equal number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar next year under a seat-sharing formula agreed to between the two sides.

Kushwaha’s meeting with Tehashwi Yadav was indicating not all was well with the seat-sharing talks in the alliance. According to RLSP leaders here, Kushwaha has been invited by Shah to meet him in Delhi on Monday to discuss on the number of seats to be contested by them. In 2014 polls, of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP had won 22, LJP six and RLSP three as part of the NDA alliance. The Janata Dal-United had bagged only two seats as the party contested the Lok Sabha polls alone. (IANS)