Bihar polls: Bhudeo Chaudhary, Bihar President of Upendra Kushwaha’s party, joins RJD

New Delhi: In a major setback to Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party’s (RLSP), its Bihar president Bhudeo Chaudhury joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday.

This comes at a time when Upendra Kushwaha publicly aired his angst against ‘domineering’ behavior of RJD and even issued an ultimatum on seat-sharing.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav inducted RLSP’s Chaudhury in presence of several leaders. Chaudhary had contested 2019 Parliamentary elections against Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan.

Kushwaha recently said that his party will remain in the grand alliance only if there is a change in the leadership of RJD.

Meanwhile, as per Election Commission announcement, Bihar assembly elections will be held in 3 phases — October 28, November 3 and 7 while counting of votes will take place on November 10.

In the 2015 Assembly polls, JDU, RJD and Congress had fought the elections together under the Mahagathbandhan banner. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA had fought the elections with the LJP and other allies.

The RJD with 80 seats had emerged as the single largest party in the elections, followed by JDU (71), and BJP (53). However, BJP got the largest vote share (24.42 per cent), followed by RJD with 18.35 per cent and JDU (16.83 per cent).

After the polls, however, a rift emerged between JDU and the RJD in 2017, leading to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snapping ties and rejoining ties with the BJP-led NDA to retain power in Bihar.