JD-U rebel quits, to form party
Bihar’s rebel JD(U) leader and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha, who has been openly critical of chief minister Nitish Kumar, on Sunday announced his decision to resign from the Upper House and the JD(U) to form a new party to take on the state’s ruling NDA.
Mr Kushwaha had left Bihar’s ruling JD(U) shocked by voting in favour of FDI in multi-brand retail against the party’s stand and in disregard of both a whip and personal requests by several JD(U) MPs. As the party mulled invoking the anti-defection law against him, he chose to quit and throw an open challenge to Kumar’s authority and future political plans.
A former leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Mr Kushwaha holds considerable influence on the state’s numerically sizeable Koeri community. Having become a RS member with Mr Kumar’s help in June 2010, he was suspended from the JD(U) along with three rebel Lok Sabha members of the party in March 2011 for alleged anti-party activities. The JD(U) had earlier initiated efforts for his disqualification from the House’s membership.
“Nitish Kumar’s dictatorial attitude and his unduly total control over the party and state government have led me to decide to quit my membership from RS and also from the party,” he said at a well-attended meeting of the Bihar Navnirman Manch, an ostensibly apolitical outfit he formed some years ago with a few dissident JD(U) leaders.
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