Lacklustre support of 2 castes led to poor show in bypoll: Rashtriya Lok Samata Party

NEW DELHI: NDA ally and Bihar-based Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which has three MPs in Lok Sabha, today blamed lacklustre support of two important castes and the state BJP leadership's "perceived lack of loyalty" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the alliance' poor show in bypolls.

RLSP, whose president and MP Upendra Kushwaha is a Union minister, said 'Kushwahas' and 'Bhumihars' felt left out as the party was not given any seat to fight elections to the 10 assembly segments.

BJP, which held six of the ten seats, could win only four of the nine constituencies it contested while Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP lost the one seat it fought.

"The lacklustre support of these communities in the recent by-elections was one of the major reasons for debacle of NDA," party spokesperson Shivraj Singh said in a statement.

He said the by-poll results were not a reflection on Modi's leadership as he was not a factor.

The top NDA leaders in state, he said, had shown "flip-flop" attitude to Modi's leadership when his name had come up for prime ministerial candidate.

In an apparent dig at BJP leader Sushil Modi, the party said, people doubted that opposition was being engineered by the then Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

While Narendra Modi hails from backward castes which rallied these communities behind NDA in Lok Sabha polls, the alliance lack a backward caste leader of this stature at the state level, it said.