Upendra Kushwaha, former JD(U) parliamentary board chief, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday, has asserted that he saw “no challenge” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Answering to reporter’s questions at the Delhi airport, Kushwaha also took a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s efforts to achieve “opposition unity”, pointing out that only those parties were with the JD(U) supreme leader with whom he made an alliance in the state.
“You all are free to make speculations. I will disclose only as much as I deem proper”, Kushwaha said when asked by reporters as to what transpired during his conversation with Shah on Thursday.
Moreover, Kushwaha had formerly been an NDA ally, while he was heading the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, and enjoyed a ministerial berth in the first Narendra Modi ministry. He quit the BJP-led coalition ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and sided with the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ which included RJD at that time, Congress and a couple of other small parties.
“I reiterate that as of now there is no challenge to Narendra Modi. As regards the efforts of Nitish Kumar, I wonder what people are making out of that. When he visits Delhi, only parties like Congress and RJD seem to rally around him. These parties are already his allies in Bihar. There is nothing worth noticing in that”. Kushwala said ahead of the 2024 polls.
However, the developments are going on with full preparations with interest in the political circles here, that too in light of the BJP’s obvious need for allies in Bihar where it is left with just a few.