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Patna : Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha skipped a get-together of senior NDA leaders at Patna on June 7, 2018, citing his preoccupation in Delhi. JD(U) national president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Radha Mohan Singh, Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP national general secretary, in-charge, Bihar, Bhupendra Yadav, and LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan attended the gathering.
The NDA get- together was the first since JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar returned to the coalition after dumping the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress in July, 2017.
Shortly after Kushwaha conveyed his decision to skip the event to Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai over telephone, a statement was issued by RLSP’s national working president and former Union Minister Nagamani saying: “NDA will achieve spectacular success in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls in Bihar if these are fought projecting Kushwaha as the leader of the coalition.”
“Some leaders of the JD(U), and even the BJP, have acknowledged Nitish Kumar as the NDA’s leader in Bihar. This can not be deemed as the view of the entire coalition. The leader for Bihar shall be decided by the NDA’s national leadership not by those of a state level,” Nagmani said.
Nagamani, however, later turned up at the NDA get-together at the Gyan Bhavan complex. As he took a seat near the entrance of the hall, Nagamani was persuaded by Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai to be seated close to other senior leaders.