PATNA: Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday advised RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh to join the BJP-led NDA after the latter took a different stand from his party on the issue of quota for economically weaker sections in the upper castes.Modi said there was no place left for Raghuvansh in the RJD. “He (Raghuvansh) will keep on venting his spleen without anybody listening to him if he remains in the RJD. It’s time he moves on and joins us. He will be treated with due respect,” Modi told a local news channel on being asked for a reaction on the comment made by Raghuvansh on Wednesday with regard to RJD’s stand on quota for the poor in the upper castes.Talking to media persons on the sidelines of a ‘dahi-chura’ feast he had organised here on Wednesday, Singh said the RJD took a wrong decision by opposing the upper caste quota bill in both houses of Parliament. He had, however, said RJD was never against quotas for the upper castes.“No RJD leader has ever said the economically weaker sections from among the upper castes should not be provided help. We are only opposed to certain provisions in the bill, which seem illogical. For instance, the annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh seems completely illogical as one cannot be an income tax payer and deemed to be economically backward at the same time,” Singh, the former Vaishali MP, said.Three RJD members in Lok Sabha and four in Rajya Sabha had voted against the bill envisaging reservation for the economically poor in the upper castes. Party insiders said senior RJD leaders from forward castes like Raghuvansh are concerned over losing even the meagre vote share from their own communities even though forward castes have not been the party’s traditional vote bank.Incidentally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had also included reservation for economically weaker sections in the general category in the party manifesto prior to 2014 general election.Ally Congress has also taken a different stand from RJD on the issue of quota for the upper castes. Senior Congress functionaries in Bihar said RJD’s stand on quota for the upper castes was its internal matter.“Congress is in support of quota for the upper castes and wants Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to implement it in the state at the earliest. As far as RJD is concerned, it is a fact that their core constituency is EBC and OBC voters. They are a regional party, hence they are not much concerned about other electorates. However, we will continue to support the quota for forward castes,” Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee working president Kaukab Quadri said.The ruling JD(U), on the other hand, took a dig at RJD for not having unity in the party. “RJD is an anti-poor party. They cannot digest the fact that Sheikh, Sayyed and Pathan will be benefitted from the quota for upper castes. Besides, lack of unity in the party is being clearly seen as its national vice-president is having a different opinion on the issue,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.

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