Upendra Kushwaha – Politician and Parliamentarian from Bihar

Upendra Kushwaha is an Indian Politician and Parliamentarian, serving as the Member of the Indian Parliament for Karakat since 2014. He formerly served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development, during the period 26 May 2014 – 10 December 2018, a position formerly served by Shashi Tharoor in UPA government. He is the founder chairperson of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party since its inception in 2013.

Upendra Kushwaha was born in Javaj, Vaishali district, Bihar in 1960. He started his political career at the age of around 25 when he became the state General-Secretary in Yuva Lok Dal in 1985, a position he served till 1988. Later he became National General-Secretary, Yuva Janata Dal. He joined Samata Party in 1994 and had a long term association with the party, and got selected to state legislative assembly as an MLA in 2000, a position he served for next 5 years.

In 2009 he established Rashtriya Samta Party along with Rambihari Singh and re-launched it in 2013 as Rashtriya Lok Samta Party. After forming alliance with BJP, he joined parliament and got elected as Minister of State for Human Resource Development. After his party formed alliance with INC in December 2018, he resigned from power. He was dissatisfied over the seat sharing formula in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and accused that BJP failed to fulfill promises.

Upendra Kushwaha – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Upendra has been formerly associated with Samata Party and Janata Dal (United) during his early phase of political journey.

2. In 2014 Rashtriya Lok Samta Party formed alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party in three seats and won all of them. In 2018 December, the Party formed alliance with INC led UPA.

3. In 2015 Bihar Assembly election, his party could gain only 2 seats out of 23 constituencies in which it contested.