Rashtriya Lok Samata Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | RLSP |
| President | Upendra Kushwaha |
| Founder | Upendra Kushwaha |
| Founded | 3 March 2013 (12 years ago) (2013-03-03) |
| Dissolved | 14 March 2021 (4 years ago) (2021-03-14) |
| Split from | Janata Dal (United) |
| Preceded by | Samata Party |
| Merged into | Janata Dal (United) |
| Succeeded by | Rashtriya Lok Morcha |
| ECI Status | State Party |
| Alliance | National Democratic Alliance (2014—2018) United Progressive Alliance (2018—2020) Grand Democratic Secular Front (2020—2021) |
| Election symbol | |
 | |
| Website | |
| ralospa | |
Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (abbreviated asRLSP;translation:National People's Equity Party) was apolitical party in India led byUpendra Kushwaha. It was launched on 3 March 2013 and based in the state ofBihar.[1][2] The party came into existence as a result of a feud betweenNitish Kumar andUpendra Kushwaha, after which Kushwaha left theNitish Kumar-ledJanata Dal (United) and formed his own party.[3] It has faced multiple rebellions and desertions since 2015.[4][5][6] After relations between Nitish and Kushwaha normalized,Upendra Kushwaha merged RLSP into JDU on 14 March 2021, with this, the party ceased to exist.[7]
Upendra Kushwaha was dismissed from theJanata Dal (United) in 2007.[8] Kushwaha founded the Rashtriya Samata Party in February 2009. The party was formed in the backdrop of alleged marginalisation of theKoeri caste andautocratic rule by theNitish Kumar government inBihar. The formation of the party was supported byChhagan Bhujbal, the deputy chief minister ofMaharashtra.[9] In November 2009, the party was merged into the Janata Dal (United) with the mending of ties between Kushwaha and Kumar.[8]
On 4 January 2013, Upendra Kushwaha who at the time was aRajya Sabha member resigned from theJanata Dal (United). He alleged that the Nitish model had failed and that the law and order situation was becoming as bad as it had been 7 years ago. He further alleged that theNitish Kumar runs his government through autocratic means and that he had turned theJanata Dal (United) into his "pocket organisation".[3]
Kushwaha launched the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party in a rally inGandhi Maidan,Patna on 3 March 2013.[10] The party's base was reported to be primarily among the member ofKoeri orKushwaha caste, which is recognised as adominant Backward Caste in state of Bihar.[a] At the time of formation, Kushwaha had stated that the party will attempt to overthrow theNational Democratic Alliance in the state ofBihar. However, following the departure of theJanata Dal (United) from the alliance, the party joined the National Democratic Alliance.[12] In the subsequent2014 Indian general election, it contested 3parliamentary seats inBihar (Sitamarhi,Karakat andJahanabad) as part of the alliance and won all of them.[13] Upendra Kushwaha was elected from the Karakat constituency and was appointed as theMinister of State of Human Resource Development.[14] In the following2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, the party contested 23 out of 243 seats as part of the alliance but was able to have its representative elected from only two seats.[15]
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From late 2015 onward, the party was divided into two factions; one led byUpendra Kushwaha and the other led byArun Kumar, themember of parliament from theJahanabad constituency. In 2016, the faction of Arun Kumar held a meeting which announced the replacement of Kushwaha with Arun Kumar as the leader of the party.Lalan Paswan, a member of theBihar Legislative Assembly from the party had also attended the meeting. Kumar claimed that his faction was the real representatives of the party and decided to move to theElection Commission of India staking claim to the party name and symbol while further accusing Kushwaha of adopting autocratic means of running the party. In retaliation, the Kushwaha faction constituting the disciplinary committee of the party recommended the suspension of both Arun Kumar and Lalan Paswan for "indiscipline and anti-party activities". The disciplinary committee was headed byRam Kumar Sharma, the other member of parliament from the party.[16]
In June 2018, the party formally split with the faction of Arun Kumar forming theRashtriya Samata Party (Secular).[4] In the same year, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party left the National Democratic Alliance. The party had been involved in an argument with the alliance over seat sharing arrangement for theupcoming general election while targeting the Janata Dal (United) which had rejoined the alliance.[17] This led to rebellion from all the three state legislators of the party, who declared that they represented the real party, raising objections that they intended to remain in the alliance. The legislators were at the time attempting to get Sudhanshu Shekhar included in theCouncil of Ministers of Bihar which was led byNitish Kumar. Shekhar was one of the legislators of the state party in Bihar.[18] However on 20 December 2018, Upendra Kushwaha declared that the party had joined the oppositionUnited Progressive Alliance.[19] Earlier in 2017, theNagmani ledSamras Samaj Party had been merged into the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party.[20] Nagmani was subsequently made the national executive of the party. In February 2019, he was sacked from the post for alleged "anti-party" activities following which he resigned from the party on grounds that Upendra Kushwaha was allegedly selling party tickets for the upcoming election.[21][5]
In the2019 Indian general election, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party contested on 5 parliamentary seats as part of the United Progressive Alliance with Upendra Kushwaha contesting from two seats.[22] The party was however unable to win on a single seat while the alliance won just one seat in Bihar.[23] Following the election, all the three formerly dissident state legislators of the party joined theJanata Dal (United).[6]
In the wake of the2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, Upendra Kushwaha pulled the party out of theRashtriya Janata Dal ledMahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance),[24] the extension of the United Progressive Alliance in Bihar.[25] The party entered into an alliance with theUttar Pradesh basedBahujan Samaj Party and the minor Janatantrik Party (Socialist);[26] according to Kushwaha both the major alliances were no different from each other.[27] According to theDainik Bhaskar, the unorthodox alliance was symptomatic of a pattern of shrinking space for smaller parties leaving them with less leverage in seat sharing negotiations within larger alliances.[28] Following the new arrangement, the state president of the party,Bhudeo Choudhary resigned from his position and joined theRashtriya Janata Dal.[29] This was followed by the national general secretary Madhav Anand resigning from his party membership while stating that the decision for an alliance with minor players was "inconsequential" and could potentially finish the party.[26] Subsequently, the new state president of the party, Bharat Bind resigned to join theRashtriya Janata Dal as well.[24]
During the campaign stage, the new coalition was merged with another smaller one consisting of theTelangana basedAll India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and theDevendra Prasad Yadav ledSamajwadi Janata Dal Democratic to form the Grand Democratic Secular Alliance, this alliance also included theSuheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and declared Upendra Kushwaha as the candidate for the position ofChief Minister of Bihar.[30] In the meantime, the former member of the legislative assembly Ajay Pratap joined the party.[31]
Relying upon its vote base which isKushwaha caste, RLSP fielded 40% Kushwaha candidates in the elections . TheGrand Democratic Secular Front of which RLSP was a constituent member relied primarily upon the votes of castes like Kushwahas, Ravidasis, andMuslims . RLSP in the first phase of elections contested a total of 42 seats amongst which it gave ticket to 17 candidates of Kushwaha caste while its allyAIMIM placed its candidates in Muslim dominated areas of Bihar.[32] Similarly in the list of its 37 candidates in the second phase also Koeri candidates were dominant accounting for 18 seats.[33]
RLSP failed to grab any seat but its allies AIMIM and BSP ended up getting 6 seat overall. The percentage of vote earned by AIMIM was smaller as compared to the RLSP but unlike the former it emerged stronger in the Simanchal region of Bihar.[34] It also showed its strong presence on many seats including Dinara and Saffron.[35][36]
Following the poor performance of the party in 2020 Bihar assembly elections, the speculation of Upendra Kushwaha's merger with JD(U) rose again. This speculation, however was not clear until March 2021, which led many party leaders including acting state president of RLSP, Veerendra Kushwaha joining hands with theRashtriya Janata Dal. The party finally merged intoJDU, from which it was formed as a result of split in 2013 and Kushwaha was made the president of parliamentary board of the JD(U). The merger and the heartwarming welcome to Upendra Kushwaha was seen as the attempt to revive JD(U)'s old social coalition of Kurmi-Koericastes, which was utilised byNitish Kumar to oust theRashtriya Janata Dal from power after the 1990s.[37]
| Election | Votes | Seats | Coalition | Ref. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± | Pos. | # | ± | Pos. | |||
| 2015 | 976,940 | 2.56 |  | 6th | 2 / 243 | | 7th | National Democratic Alliance | [38] |
| 2020 | 744,221 | 1.77% | | TBA | 0 / 243 |  | 2 | Grand Democratic Secular Front | |
| Election | Votes | Seats | Coalition | Ref. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± | Pos. | # | ± | Pos. | |||
| 2014 | 2,460,537 | 6.97 | | 6th | 3 / 40 | | 4th | National Democratic Alliance | [39][40] |
| 2019 | 1,462,518 | 3.66 | 3.93 | 6th | 0 / 40 | 3 | | United Progressive Alliance | [41] |
Notes
Citations
Parties are disengaging from alliances simply because their space in Alliance Politics is getting smaller. The scope for contested seats is diminishing.
Trans.:In the assembly elections, political parties are putting up more candidates for their base vote castes. The RLSP, the main constituent of the Grand Democratic Secular Front, considers the Kushwaha (Koeri) society its base vote. This front consists of 6 parties. Of these, RALOSPA will contest the most seats. The party will contest elections on more than 100 seats, including 40% Kushwaha candidates. The RLSP has fielded candidates for 42 seats in the first phase, of which 17 are Kushwaha candidates.