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Updated: Dec 29, 2018 00:40 IST

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) received a shot in the arm on Thursday with the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) of Upendra Kushwaha, a former constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), joining its grouping in the electorally crucial state of Bihar which sends 40 representatives to the Lok Sabha.

Kushwaha told a crowded news conference held at the Congress headquarters in Delhi that his party will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as part of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar.

Apart from the Congress and the RLSP, the other major parties in the grand alliance are the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

The alliance is expected to pose a challenge to the ruling NDA that comprises the BJP, the Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which has served the BJP with an ultimatum of finalising a seat-sharing pact by December 31.

Seat-sharing talks between the constituents of the Mahagatbandhan are expected to begin soon.

The Kushwaha community constitutes 6% of Bihar’s 100 million-population, according to the 2011 Census.

The RLSP won three of the four seats it contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It defeated the RJD, which finished second in all the three constituencies. In all, the NDA won 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from the state.

Kushwaha’s party also enjoys electoral support in other regions of the state. In the 2015 assembly elections, the party contested in 23 constituencies spread across 17 Lok Sabha seats. While it managed to win just two of them, it came second in 19 seats and third in one. Its vote share was more than 20% in most of these seats.

On the day the UPA displayed its renewed strength, the BJP stepped up its efforts to placate Paswan and his son Chirag. BJP chief Amit Shah met Paswan while party general secretary in-charge of Bihar Bhupendra Yadav held discussions with Chirag. Finance minister Arun Jaitley attended a meeting of the leaders at Shah’s house. “There is no unhappiness [in the NDA],” Paswan told reporters at Parliament complex earlier in the day.

According to BJP?leaders aware of the developments, Jaitley is likely to hold another round of talks with Paswan and Chirag. He will have a separate meeting with Bihar CM?Kumar, who is expected to arrive in Delhi on Friday. An announcement on seats is expected before December 31.

Shah announced last month that the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janta Dal (United), which returned to the NDA last year, will contest equal number of seats in Bihar. He did not disclose the number, but leaders in the two parties claim the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 17 seats each. This formula leaves the LJP with six seats, which is one less than its 2014 share.

On December 10, Kushwaha announced his resignation from the Union council of ministers and the NDA after seat-sharing talks with the BJP for the 2019 elections failed to take-off.

Thursday’s press conference announcing his admission into the alliance was attended by Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, HAM president and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Congress party’s Bihar in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil. Sharad Yadav’s party is also part of the alliance.

The Opposition has also planned a rally in Bihar on February 2 that will be addressed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of the bloc.

Kushwaha said the Prime Minister has failed to deliver on his promise during the 2014 election campaign that he would address the issues of education, jobs and healthcare for the people of Bihar.

“There was a difference between his talk and action. I never believed there could be so much difference,” he said.

Kushwaha went on to praise Congress president Rahul Gandhi for delivering the promise of loan waiver for farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. “The first step of Congress governments in these states was to write off of the loans of farmers.”

Asked about the possibility of the LJP joining the UPA, Tejashwi Yadav said, “Whether or not to join the grand alliance is their decision. But the country’s [political] climate is changing, you need to wait and see.”

He said the BJP has lost allies in the north, west, south and east of the country and a “Mahagathbandhan” against the NDA across India is in the making.

“This [Mahagathbandhan] is not the alliance of political parties. It is an alliance of the hearts of the people. It is the alliance of the new agreement of farmers and youths. This is the alliance of the commitment to social justice. This alliance is against dictatorship and mobocracy. It is the alliance for the people of the people,” he said.

The RJD leader too praised Gandhi, saying he had implemented his promises and was patiently building up a coalition of the Opposition parties.

However, he was evasive about whether his party was open to the idea of Gandhi being the prime ministerial face of the combined Opposition. “The issue is not who will be the Prime Minister, the issue is whether our Constitution, our country will be will be protected or not from the BJP onslaught.”

“If we don’t unite, people will not forgive us,” Tejashwi Yadav said exuding hope that Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would sooner or later become a part of the grand alliance.

“Like-minded parties opposed to the BJP are steadily uniting. Both the SP and the BSP need not be told, they know what they should do. And I believe their decision will be based on what the people of the country want, which is to get rid of the Modi government,” he said.

Patna-based political analyst Shaibal Gupta termed Kushwaha’s move a “big disadvantage” to the NDA. “In the backdrop of a photo-finish in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, every vote will matter. That should not be ignored. It’s advantage to UPA even if his [Kushwaha’] support base is limited,” he said.