Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) has suffered a significant blow ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections after Santosh Kushwaha, a former MP from Purnia, joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Friday. The move was marked by a public event at the RJD office in Patna, attended by the party’s leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav.
Addressing the media, Kushwaha criticised his former party for marginalising the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and the Luv-Kush community. “Everyone in the JD(U) is looking for an alternative. There is no place for the EBCs and Luv-Kush in the party anymore,” he said. “The vote belongs to the backward, most backward, and Mahadalit communities, yet the government is being run by a handful of people.”
While Kushwaha did not name JD(U) leaders directly, his remarks were widely seen as taking aim at Sanjay Jha, Lallan Singh, and Vijay Chaudhary, highlighting grievances over the party’s internal hierarchy. Jha, a Rajya Sabha MP, previously lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Darbhanga but was later elevated to the Rajya Sabha by Nitish Kumar, becoming effectively the party’s number two.
Kushwaha, who represented Purnia in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, contested the 2024 elections on a JD(U) ticket but was defeated by independent candidate Pappu Yadav, securing around 5.43 lakh votes. With his shift to the RJD, there is speculation that Kushwaha will contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections from the Dhamdaha seat in Purnia district, currently held by JDU’s Leshi Singh.
