Bihar CM Nitish Kumar felicitates RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha after the party merged with JD(U) in Patna on March 14.
Less than a week after Upendra Kushwaha merged the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) with the Janata Dal (United), the Nitish Kumar-led government recommended to the Governor to nominate him to the Legislative Council.
Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan has nominated 12 members to the Vidhan Parishad. Besides Kushwaha, 11 others include Ashok Choudhary, Ram Bachan Rai, Janak Ram, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Lallan Kumar Saraf, Rajendra Prasad Gupta, Sanjay Singh, Devendra Kumar, Pramod Kumar, Ghanshyam Thakur and Nivedita Singh. Ashok Choudhary and Janak Ram are ministers in the Nitish Kumar government.
While two of the 12 seats were lying vacant since May 2019 after Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Pashupati Kumar Paras resigned following their election to the Lok Sabha, the remaining 10 fell vacant in May 2020.
The Bihar Legislative Council comprises 75 chairs. The Article 171(3)(e) of the Constitution empowers the Governor to nominate 12 members to the House. The tenure of MLCs lasts for six years.
The JD(U) received a shot in the arm on Sunday with the merger of RLSP of Upendra Kushwaha, a former protege of Nitish Kumar who came back under his wing nine years after having fallen apart.
Soon after he was inducted into the JD(U), Kumar announced Kushwaha's appointment as the national parliamentary board president 'with immediate effect'.
Kushwaha, who brings on table his support base of the sizeable Koeri caste, vowed to make the JD(U) the number one party in Bihar. He said that after having been witness to many ups and downs as the RLSP chief, he looked forward to making use of his experience under the guidance of Nitish Kumar who is a Kurmi, a caste that is numerically small but very influential by virtue of being economically and educationally advanced.
Kushwaha was in political wilderness since his exit from NDA in 2017. He quit the RJD-led Grand Alliance ahead of the assembly elections last year.
