New Delhi: Former Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday announced a protest march from Muzaffarpur to Patna against the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.
The Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) outbreak has claimed the lives of more than 150 children during the month.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) Spokesperson Madhav Anand said, "Our padayatra will have the theme, Nitish Hatao, Bhavishya Bachao (Oust Nitish from Power, Save the future of Bihar)."
The ''padayatra'' will commence at Muzaffarpur on July 2 and conclude in Bihar capital Patna on July 6, he said.
"Nitish Kumar will be completing 15 years as chief minister next year. Had he paid adequate attention to providing basic health care to the people of the state, so many children would not have died. We also get an impression that efforts are on to pass the buck so that Kumar is not held accountable," he alleged.
"These people will not resign so easily and this is why Upendra Kushwaha will hold the protest march and reach people door to door so that the Nitish Kumar government is compelled to resign," Anand added.
The RLSP started off as an NDA ally and won all the three seats it contested in 2014, riding the Modi wave while Kushwaha himself got a ministerial berth at the Centre.
He quit the BJP-led coalition in 2018 after the saffron party apparently offered him only two seats in order to make way for the JD(U) headed by Kumar, who had returned to the NDA, a year earlier.
Kushwaha thereafter joined the 'Mahagathbandhan' comprising Congress, RJD, HAM and budding Nishad leader Mukesh Sahni.
Read: AES death toll climbs to 136 in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district
