Tag: Upendra Kushwaha

Grand Alliance Holds Protest March In Patna, Tejashwi Yadav Absent.

Source – ndtv.com

PATNA: The five-member Grand Alliance along with the Left parties on Wednesday took out protest march in Patna against “anti-people” policies of both Central and the state governments, though RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav gave the stir a miss.

RJD, the major constituent of the opposition grouping in Bihar, however, said Mr Yadav could not participate in the “Aakrosh march” because of his engagements in the ensuing Jharkhand polls and also legal matters.

RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, who played a pivotal role in organising the march on behalf of alliance, had on Tuesday claimed that all the prominent leaders of the grouping will take part in the march.

Apart from Mr Kushwaha,former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) president Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar Congress president Madan Mohan Jha and Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni attended the march in Patna which ended at Collectorate after starting from Gandhi Maidan.

CPI state secretary Satya Narayan Singh and CPI(M) leader Arun Mishra took part in the agitation along with their partymen.

The alliance leaders, however, could not give their memorandum to District Magistrate Kumar Ravi as he was not present in the office and a junior officer was sent to receive it.

The leaders decided not to give memorandum to any other officer than the DM as it was an “insult” to them. 

The five-parties alliance- comprising RJD, Congress, RLSP, HAM(S) and VIP- held peaceful protest march at all the district headquarters town of the state during the day. 

Asked if he was leading the march, Mr Kushwaha, who is a former union minister of state, said “its not like that. This is neither Mr Kushwaha’s programme nor that of my party. It is an agitation programme of all the Grand Alliance partners and left parties…There is no question of any particular individual leading the march.”

Manjhi, whose party had earlier said that it would not join the march, attended it.

The HAM chief said that he had said that he would not be part of the march because of some confusion. 

Manjhi, however, reiterated his demand for forming coordination committee for taking decisions and better functioning of the grand alliance.

“Our demand for coordination committee is absolutely legitimate. I have given a December target (deadline) for the formation of the committee,” Manjhi said.

The HAM president, however, refused to comment on Tejashwi Yadav’s absence from the march, saying that “I have nothing to say on it. Tejashwi may not have come because of his own reasons.”

RJD resorted to tokenism by sending its spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwary to the agitation in the state capital. 

Asked why is Tejashwi Yadav not present in the march, Tiwary said he could not participate in the stir as he was engaged with his legal battles and ensuing assembly polls in Jharkhand.

He further said RJD’s state unit chief Ram Chandra Purvey was busy in a party’s crucial meeting with regard to its organisational polls. 

Bihar: Upendra Kushwaha to take out ‘padayatra’ in protest against AES deaths

Source: indianexpress.com

Charging the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar with having “failed” to control the AES outbreak, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha Sunday announced that he will take out a ‘padayatra’ from the worst-affected Muzaffarpur district in protest, later this week.
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The Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) outbreak has claimed the lives of more than 150 children during the month.

Addressing a press conference here, a day after he visited Muzaffarpur where 134 children have died since June 1, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief said, “our padayatra will have the theme, Nitish hatao, bhavishya bachao (oust Nitish from power, save the future of Bihar).”

The ‘padayatra’ will commence at Muzaffarpur on July 2 and conclude here on July 6, he said.

“Nitish Kumar will be completing 15 years as chief minister next year. Had he paid adequate attention to providing basic health care to the people of the state, so many children would not have died. We also get an impression that efforts are on to pass the buck so that Kumar is not held accountable,” Kushwaha alleged.

Kushwaha’s alliance partners such as the RJD and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) have been demanding the resignation of Health Minister Mangal Pandey, a senior BJP leader.

“It is not my concern whether Kumar retains Pandey in his cabinet or removes him. But, my point is he did not fight elections in the name of his cabinet colleagues. He won on the plank of his claims of ‘sushasan’ (good governance). Now that the falsity of the claims lay exposed, he must take the blame,” Kushwaha a former JD(U) leader who quit and floated his own outfit in 2013- said.

The RLSP started off as an NDA ally and won all the three seats it contested in 2014, riding the Modi wave while Kushwaha himself got a ministerial berth at the Centre.

He quit the BJP-led coalition in 2018 after the saffron party apparently offered him only two seats in order to make way for the JD(U) headed by Kumar, who had returned to the NDA, a year earlier.

Kushwaha thereafter joined the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ comprising Congress, RJD, HAM and budding Nishad leader Mukesh Sahnis VIP.

The opposition alliance was trounced in the recent general elections, with only the Congress among the constituents winning a seat. The RLSP, which had fought five, lost all including two contested by Kushwaha himself.