Overview
- Eight RLM office-bearers resigned on December 25, led by Anant Kumar Gupta, saying the party has abandoned its ideology and embraced family-first politics.
- Three of the party’s four MLAs — Madhav Anand, Rameshwar Mahto and Alok Kumar Singh — skipped Kushwaha’s Litti-Chokha event and met BJP national working president Nitin Nabin, sharing photos of the meeting on social media.
- The immediate flashpoint is the appointment of Kushwaha’s son, Deepak Prakash, as Bihar’s Panchayati Raj Minister despite not being a member of either house of the state legislature.
- RLM leaders publicly critical of the move argue the party, which won four seats within the NDA, has strayed from its anti-dynasty stance, while some MLAs described their BJP meeting as a courtesy call.
- Party spokesperson Rampukar Sinha and Upendra Kushwaha rejected talk of a split, asserting the organisation is intact and downplaying the MLAs’ absence from the event.