Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday (June 13, 2026) said that his son Deepak Prakash would remain in the Bihar Cabinet for as long as there is an NDA government in the State.

On June 9, Mr. Prakash was denied an NDA ticket for the forthcoming Bihar Legislative Council (MLC) election slated for June 18, 2026. He is currently serving as State Panchayati Raj Minister but is not a member of either the State Assembly or the Legislative Council. Because constitutional rules require him to become an MLA or MLC within six months of taking oath (which he did on May 7, 2026), a Damocles sword hangs over his ministerial position now.

On Saturday, the RLM re-elected Mr. Kushwaha as its national president. The move is as an assertion of independence by Mr. Kushwaha, who has been nudged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to merge the RLM into the national party.

Addressing party workers at a convention in the national capital upon the conclusion of the RLM’s organisational elections, Mr. Kushwaha said there should be no confusion in anyone’s mind and that Mr. Prakash would remain a Minister in Bihar for as long as the State was led by an NDA government.

His son had not been the member of any House when he was made a Minister in the Samrat Chowdhary-led BJP government in Bihar, Mr. Kushwaha later told media persons. “It was not me but the NDA which had made him the Minister, and they will decide the way forward,” he said, asserting that Mr. Prakash would complete his term as Minister.

“I was never uncomfortable in the NDA,” he said, when asked if he was comfortable in the NDA’s fold.

Before the nominations for the MLC election were announced, Mr. Kushwaha had ruled out the possibility of a merger with the BJP, stating that his party’s ideology did not align with that of the saffron party.

On Saturday, the RLM supremo also reiterated his demand for an amendment to the provisions of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949 so that the management of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara Temple could be handed over to Buddhists.

“I am also a Hindu. We have so many temples. Don’t we have a big enough heart to hand over just one temple to them (Buddhists),” Mr. Kushwaha said.

At the RLM convention here, a political resolution was also adopted, which among other things demanded a change in the name of State capital Patna to Patliputra, special status for Bihar till the State achieved the desired development rate, and that delimitation should be carried out on the basis of the Census of 2026. The resolution demanded a delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies solely based on the population of States.

Elections were held in the RLM from the primary to the national levels, in accordance with the party’s constitution. “We have also launched a membership drive,” Mr. Kushwaha said.

“Upendra Kushwaha’s name was proposed by the five other top leaders of the party and he was elected unanimously,” Pramod Kumar Suman, who oversaw the RLM’s organisational polls, said.