RLSP president and BJP ally Upendra Kushwaha met opposition leader Sharad Yadav on Monday, fu elling speculation that he may switch camps over his differences with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the proposed seat-sharing arrangement among the saffron party's Bihar allies for the Lok Sabha polls.
Kushwaha, also a Union minister, met Yadav at the latter's residence and both the leaders were believed to discussed the current political situation, especially in Bihar, RLSP sources said.
In a tweet, Kushwaha described the meeting as a courtesy call.
He has often asserted that he would work to get Narendra Modi elected as prime minister for another term but his unease with Kumar and meetings with opposition leaders, including RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, have sparked speculation about his future course.
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Yadav had snapped ties with Kumar after the JD(U) chief joined hands with the BJP last year, and he was working to rally the opposition against the saffron party.
Kushwaha has expressed reservations to the BJP president Amit Shah's proposal that both his party and Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP contest fewer number of seats in 2019 than they did in 2014 so that Kumar's JD(U) could be allotted as many seats as the saffron party fights.
The RLSP, which had fought three seats in 2014 and won all, is unlikely to be spared more than two seats.
An old rival of Kumar, Kushwaha had also attacked the chief minister for allegedly insulting him and had targeted him again Sunday over reports that two MLAs of his party may join the JD(U).
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He had said he would apprise Shah of the "humiliation" he had suffered at the hands of Kumar and also request him to clear the confusion over seat-sharing among the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents in the state at the earliest.
He also made a jibe at Kumar, saying the JD(U)president had an expertise in breaking parties but he would continue with his fight.
The RLSP chief, who is known to have been sharing an uneasy relationship with Kumar, has maintained that he is firmly with the NDA even as Tejashwi Yadav said there was a standing invitation to the party to join the Grand Alliance.
Relations between Kushwaha and Kumar soured recently after the chief minister remarked that speaking about the dispute over seat-sharing with the RLSP was tantamount to lowering the standard of discourse.
Kushwaha has taken affront to the remark, claiming that Kumar, who is his erstwhile mentor, had in effect called him a lowly person and had taunted him for having joined hands with the BJP again, after taking umbrage over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caustic remark about his political DNA during the 2015 assembly election.
PTI
