'Betrayed' by PM Modi's leadership: Upendra Kushwaha quits as minister
New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from the Union council of ministers.
Kushwaha's resignation as Minister of State for Human Resource Development comes a day ahead of Parliament’s Winter Session.
Earlier on Monday, the RLSP chief had said that he would not attend the meeting of ruling BJP and its allies in Delhi.
“I have left NDA, other options are open,” Kushwaha told the media after sending his resignation letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kushwaha’s resignation letter was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he was quitting the BJP-led NDA alliance.
In his resignation letter to the PM, Kushwaha said: “I stand dejected, betrayed by your leadership.”
“Unfortunate that government's priority is not to work for poor but to fix political opponents,” the letter mentioned.
Addressing a press conference where Kushwaha announced that he has quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he said, “I had a bitter experience. I had attempted to put forth my words strongly while in NDA so that the people of Bihar get justice. But even after all these efforts, BJP stood with Bihar Chief Minister. Nitish ji has done injustice to people on all fronts.”
Kushwaha said that PM Modi failed to meet the expectations of the people of Bihar. “Narendra Modi ji couldn't meet expectations of the people of Bihar. Nothing was done for special status. Bihar is still where it was earlier. Education and health system is non-existent,” the RSLP chief said.
Further lambasting at the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, Kushwaha said: “The state government has failed. Nitish ji's agenda is to destroy me and my party. This was started by BJP. In Bihar election, seats of all allies were increased. But injustice was done to RLSP.”
"After observing everything I feel, I shouldn't have stayed in the cabinet even for a minute to implement RSS agenda. So I tendered my resignation as the Union Minister and I have also decided that Rashtriya Lok Samta Party will no longer be a part of NDA," Kushwaha added.
The RLSP chief is likely to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi later on Monday.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav welcomed Kushwaha's resignation.
Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav said Kushwaha has taken the right decision which is in favour of democracy and now he should decide his future course of action to remove the BJP from power.
The RLSP chief has been targeting the BJP and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, a key ally of the ruling party, for weeks.
He has been upset with the BJP after it asserted that the RLSP would not be given more than two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, even as it went out of way to accommodate Nitish Kumar by agreeing that the saffron party and the JD(U) would fight equal number of seats.
Bihar sends 40 MPs to Lok Sabha.
