Patna, Aug. 17: Rebel Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) MP Arun Kumar today announced that party national president and MP Upendra Kushwaha has been sacked. The party is a constituent of the NDA in Bihar.

Arun made the announcement during a special conference of the party faction he heads, held at Patna's SK Memorial Hall.

Differences in the RLSP started soon after the results of the 2015 Assembly election when Arun accused Kushwaha of running the party in an undemocratic way. Kushwaha has already removed Arun from the post of state unit president and sacked five senior party functionaries close to Arun.

The RLSP has three MPs and two MLAs; the third MP, Ram Kumar Sharma who represents Sitamarhi parliamentary constituency, is on Kushwaha's side. Of the MLAs, Lalan Paswan from Chenari Assembly seat has joined Arun whereas Sudhanshu Shekhar, who recently won the Harlakhi bypoll, is in the Kushwaha camp.

The members of national and state council who attended the special conference called by Arun also okayed him as the new RLSP national president. Addressing supporters, Arun declared that he gave his blood and sweat to strengthen the party while Kushwaha only thought about power. "He calls me 'out of syllabus', but let me remind him that we both made the syllabus," Arun said.

The five party functionaries Kushwaha had suspended - state unit vice-president Shiv Kumar, national general secretary Raj Kumar Singh, farmers' wing president Vijay Kushwaha, general secretary Sambhu Kushwaha and spokesperson Manoj Lal Das Manu - were present at the special conference today. Chenari MLA Lalan was also present and he too accused Kushwaha of running the party like his fiefdom.

The party had contested from 23 seats in last year's Assembly elections.

Asked about the the RLSP fracas, BJP MLC and spokesperson Vinod Naryan Jha said: "It is very disappointing for us that the party has split in two but any decision on the situation would be made by the central (NDA) leadership. However, as far as alliance is concerned in Bihar, we are with Upendra Kushwaha."

Repeated attempts to contact Kushwaha went in vain.