Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samata Party merges with with JD(U)

Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha-headed Rashtriya Lok Samata Party on Sunday merged with Nitish Kumar-led JDU. Soon after, Kushwaha was made chairman of JDU’s parliamentary board.

The merger is likely to boost Kumar’s efforts to keep two key caste groups of Bihar — Kurmi and Kushwaha — together. In Bihar, the two groups are popular as the ‘Lav-Kush’ equation.

“We honoured the decision of people and decided to merge our party with JDU unconditionally,” Kushwaha told reporters while referring to the results of the 2020 assembly elections. He added that he, along with his party workers, would work to restore JDU’s status as the state’s ‘number one’ party.


In the 2020 assembly polls, RLSP had failed to open its account. It was neither part of NDA nor the RJD-led alliance. Expressing his happiness over the merger, chief minister Kumar said in Patna: “Kushwaha has been made president of JDU’s parliamentary board with immediate effect.”