Keeping the 2025 Assembly election in mind, every political party is trying hard to stake the claim over the Kushwaha vote bank, the second largest bloc among the Other Backward Classes (OBC) after Yadav in Bihar.
To score better, the National Democratic (NDA) on July 2 announced Rasthriya Lok Morcha (RLM) president and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha as its candidate for Rajya Sabha.
The NDA was forced to take this decision after INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) made Abhay Kushwaha the leader of the party in Lok Sabha. Following this development the Janata Dal-(United) national president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced Bhagawan Singh Kushwaha as the candidate for the poll in Bihar Legislative Council and now Upendra Kushwaha nomination to Rajya Sabha.
BJP state unit president and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary made the formal announcement, “With the consensus, Upendra Kushwaha ji has been nominated for the Rajya Sabha and he will be the candidate of NDA.”
This Lok Sabha election, two seats have fallen vacant. Misa Bharti of RJD and Vivek Thakur of BJP have now become the members of Lok Sabha from Patliputra and Nawada Lok Sabha seats. Mr. Kushwaha will be replacing Mr. Thakur after being elected to Lok Sabha.
The decision to nominate Mr. Kushwaha despite his electoral loss in the Lok Sabha from the Karakat seat in Bihar is said to have taken keeping the Kushahwa community intact towards the NDA.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Mr. Kushwaha expressed his gratitude to NDA constituents including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and BJP State president Samrat Chaudhary. “In days to come, whatever challenges come, we will collectively face it,” his post further said.
Mr. Kushwaha finished a distant third when he contested Lok Sabha elections from Karakat. CPI(ML) candidate Raja Ram Singh won from the seat, while Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh came second.
The Kushwaha community was also upset with the BJP because the party did not give a ticket to Pawan Singh from his desired Lok Sabha constituency. Upendra Kushwaha is considered the strongest leader among his community and BJP was being blamed for his defeat. The community felt that if the Bhojpuri star would have not been in the fray, Upendra Kushwaha would have easily won the election.
It is believed that to counter Lalu Yadav’s game plan, Mr. Kumar fielded Shahabad’s region big Kushwaha leader Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha on one of the vacant seats in the Legislative Council and now Upendra Kushwaha nomination for Rajya Sabha.
Abhay Kushwaha, who became MP from Aurangabad, was earlier in JD(U) but he joined RJD just before the Lok Sabha elections.
There has been hot and blow relations between Upendra Kushwaha and Nitish Kumar who has been the Chief Minister of Bihar since 2005 and his core vote bank is Luv-Kush (Kurmi and Kushwaha (Koiri caste) has played a pivotal role in keeping him in power. There was a time, when Upendra Kushwaha was very close to Mr. Kumar.
However, their relation became bitter after he quit JD-(U) in February 2023 following the difference with Mr. Kumar on certain issues.
Looking at performance of the last three elections, the resentment among the Kushwaha voters against JD(U) and BJP has increased.
In the 2015 assembly elections, 20 Kushwaha candidates won the elections, 11 Kushwaha candidates belonged to JD-(U), 4 of BJP, 4 of RJD and one Kushwaha candidate of Congress had won the elections.
In the 2020 assembly elections, the 16 Kushwaha MLAs included 3 from BJP, 4 from JD-(U), 4 from RJD, 4 from CPI(ML) and 1 from CPI. Similarly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a total of 11 Kushwaha candidates were fielded by the INDIA bloc and NDA, but only 4 won.
The INDIA bloc gave tickets to 7 Kushwaha candidates which included RJD -3 and one each by VIP, CPI (M), CPIM, and Congress. At the same time, NDA gave tickets to 4 Kushwaha candidates in which JD-(U) fielded 3 and RLM fielded one candidate as Upendra Kushwaha, while BJP, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) did not give tickets to Kushwaha candidate.
The possibility of Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha getting elected unopposed is certain because the numbers are in favour of NDA. Bhagawan Singh Kushwaha today filed his nomination papers in the council. Mr. Kumar was also present during his nomination.
Published - July 02, 2024 12:32 pm IST
