PatnaNovember 27, 2025 02:47 PM IST
First published on: Nov 27, 2025 at 02:47 PM IST
The BJP often brings up “dynastic politics” to target its rivals and now it has come back to haunt its ally Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) led by Upendra Kushwaha.
In the first fallout of Kushwaha choosing his son Deepak Prakash, who is neither an MLA nor an MLC, over the party’s four elected MLAs for a ministerial post, seven leaders have quit the RLM after accusing their chief of “promoting his family”.
“I have been with Kushwaha ji for the last nine years and understand his politics very well. The man who once fancied himself as (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar’s successor had been unsure about the future of his party (then the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party) after he drew a blank in the 2020 Assembly polls. Since he sees no future for himself, he is seeming desperate to promote his family. However, his non-legislator son becoming a minister is blatant favouritism,” Jitendra Nath, who was the RLM’s official number two before he resigned, told The Indian Express. Nath was also eyeing a ticket from the Shekhpura seat, which eventually went to the JD(U).
Apart from Nath, RLM state president Mahendra Kushwaha, state general secretary and spokesperson Rahul Kumar, state general secretary and Nalanda in-charge Rajesh Ranjan Singh, state general secretary and Jamui in-charge Bipin Kumar Chourasia, state general secretary and Lakhisarai in-charge Pramod Yadav, and Shekhpura district president Pappu Mandal have also resigned.
The RLM won four of the six seats it contested as part of the NDA in the recent Bihar Assembly polls. The party got one ministerial berth in its quota after the NDA swept the polls, winning 202 of the state’s 243 seats.
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Referring to the RLM chief as a “fallen pillar of socialist politics”, Mahendra Kushwaha said Upendra Kushwaha has forgotten the core socialist ideology. “He spoke of moral values and ethics but did not follow them himself.”
Rahul Kumar described his resignation as a “one-sided affair that came to an end” and said Upendra Kushwaha had “fallen into the trap of dynastic politics”. “Now, there is no difference between him and other leaders who have only promoted their family. A simple worker like me has no place in the RLM,” he said.
Besides Prakash being a minister, Upendra Kushwaha is a Rajya Sabha MP while his wife Snehlata Kushwaha is the Sasaram MLA.
While Rajesh Ranjan said he quit because he did not subscribe to the ideology of a party that “does not value its workers and gives it all to family”, Mandal questioned Upendra Kushwaha dissolving the party’s Sheikhpura unit without taking workers into confidence.