Upendra Kushwaha, once a blue-eyed boy of Nitish Kumar, came down heavily on him in his home turf-Nalanda. He went on to say that the chief minister has reduced himself as a “darbari” of Laluji and his son Tejshwi Prasad Yadav.

Months after quitting the Janata Dal United (JDU), Kushwaha is now in the NDA fold. He is so “harsh and blunt” about his bete noire at a public meeting in Nalanda that it’s difficult to imagine that not too long ago he was his mentor.

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Nalanda is a litmus test for INDIA versus NDA in Bihar. The constituency has become a prestige issue for the BJP-led alliance in Bihar in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha.

The JDU had won this parliamentary seat even when the Narendra Modi wave swept the state in the 2014 parliamentary polls. Veterans like Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes have already represented this seat in Parliament. Currently, Kaushalendra Kumar of the JDU is a second-term MP from Nalanda.

Kushwaha has pledged not to align with the JDU and Nitish ji in future at any cost. “In fact, JDU is on the verge of collapse. Our newly-formed party – Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal ( RLJD) – will be able to score 40 out of 40 seats in Bihar for NDA in 2024 polls,” Kushwaha claimed.

He wanted to send this message loud and clear directly to CM Nitish from his home turf.

“We never had imagined that Nitish ji would stoop so low in Bihar politics. Once I told him about his capability of being PM material. We were proud of him and his qualities. But unfortunately, now his condition has become pathetic,” he said and added that nobody is responsible for it except for himself. He is himself to blame for such a situation now, he felt.

“Now-a-days, he (Kumar) keeps running here and there (referring to his visits to Lalu to seek advice). Recently, the CM had made a surprise visit to his close aide and Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary’s official residence and another cabinet colleague Ashok Chaudhary. In fact, the finance minister was not even aware about his sudden visit, said a local private news channel. It surprises one and all in the political circle here.

“Laluji is not there to help him in the functioning of the government. He is only interested in seeing his younger son as the CM of Bihar,” he said. “Nitishji should not get confused about it. He is only interested in his son,” he added.

“The situation today in Bihar is like it was before 2005,” Kushwaha said at the party workers’ meet at Biharsharif town hall (district HQ of Nalanda) on Wednesday. Now, only RLJD will be able to save Bihar from further deterioration, he asserted.

Kushwaha’s sudden anger is not an abrupt outburst against Nitish. Only a few days ago, the CM had pointed out that Kushwaha had a history of “coming and going” from the party. He had also hinted that again he expressed his desire to return, but this time he bluntly refused.

Old timers admit that Nitish Kumar had nurtured him during his early political career and made him leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly. However, Kushwaha lost his assembly polls of 2005 despite full support from Nitish Kumar but he blamed Nitish for his defeat.