Union Minister and NDA ally in Bihar Upendra Kushwaha is likely to resign from the union council next week to join the opposition front ahead of the general elections next year.

Kushwaha is likely to meet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on December 10 after resigning from the Modi government.

Kushwaha has shown signs of uniting with opposition forces to defeat BJP in 2019. He is disenchanted with BJP over seat sharing in Bihar ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

Once a protégé of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha has been been upset over the reports of JDU trying to poach his MLAs. The RLSP chief comes from backward Koeri community, which constitutes 5-6% of Bihar’s population.

It has presence in 25 assembly segments in the state.

The NDA ally RLSP head been demanding more than three seats in the upcoming polls. While BJP and JD(U) have announced a 50-50 seat sharing formula between, it is not yet clear how smaller allies like Ram Vilas Paswan and Kushwaha would be accommodated by the two bigger allies in Bihar.

Kushwaha been trying to meet the BJP President Amit Shah over the seat sharing issue. All his attempts have gone in vain. He has also kept a channel of communication open with the opposition parties. Kushwaha on the last one month has met Sharad Yadav and RJD leader Teyaswi Yadav in what is being seen as an attempt to explore possibilities in the opposition front.

There are reports today that Sharad Yadav and Kushwaha's party RLSP may merge to form a political outfit in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.