Patna, Seven senior office-bearers of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), a junior partner in Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, tendered their resignations on Thursday in protest against what they described as the party leadership’s slide into “dynastic politics”.
The trigger was the decision by RLM president and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha to nominate his 36-year-old son, Deepak Prakash, as the state’s Panchayati Raj minister in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s newly expanded cabinet. Mr Prakash, a computer science engineering graduate with no prior legislative experience, is not currently a member of either House of the Bihar legislature but is expected to be elected to the Legislative Council in the near future.
The RLM had contested six seats in the recent Bihar assembly elections as part of the NDA, winning four and earning one ministerial berth in return. Mr Kushwaha’s wife, Snehlata Kushwaha, won the Sasaram constituency, further concentrating family influence within the party.
Among those who quit were the RLM’s state president Mahendra Kushwaha, vice-president Jitendra Nath, and several district-level general secretaries and spokespersons. In a joint press interaction in Patna, the departing leaders accused Mr Kushwaha of betraying the socialist principles he has long espoused.
“Mr Kushwaha frequently lectures others on morality and ethics in public life, yet when power was at stake he chose his own son over committed party workers,” Mahendra Kushwaha told reporters. Another resigning leader remarked: “There is now no difference between him and the very dynasts he once criticised.”
Defending the appointment earlier this week, Upendra Kushwaha argued that his son was “a qualified professional who had secured employment on merit” and urged critics to give the younger man time to prove himself. Describing the decision as a painful but necessary one, he likened it to the mythological churning of the ocean, which yields both nectar and poison: “Some people have to drink the poison for the larger good of the party.”
The episode underscores persistent tensions over familial succession in Indian regional parties, even among those that position themselves as ideological alternatives to larger dynastic outfits. Political observers in Bihar note that the rebellion, while limited in numbers so far, could complicate the RLM’s organisational cohesion ahead of the 2027 local-body elections, where control of panchayati raj institutions is a key prize.
The NDA government in Bihar, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has so far refrained from public comment on the internal affairs of its smallest ally.
