PATNA: Driven out of the ministerial bungalow in the national capital which had become synonymous with his late father, Chirag Paswan on Saturday played the victim card, sniffing out a conspiracy angle.
Paswan alleged that a day prior to his unceremonious eviction earlier this week, he was assured by "a top Union minister" that he could stay on, and wondered whether Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had a role to play in his "humiliation".
Paswan also attacked his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who earned a cabinet berth after splitting the Lok Janshakti Party, for remaining "a mute spectator to the insult to the memory" of late Ram Vilas Paswan.
"I have been rendered homeless. My father was an honest man and hence never cared to build a house in Delhi despite a political career spanning across five decades", he said.
"I had made up my mind to vacate 12, Janpath. I am intrigued that on the night prior to the mayhem by security forces, I was summoned by a top minister in the Union cabinet who told me I could stay on and even dialed up a colleague to say let's not be harsh on Chirag. He is the future of Bihar", claimed Paswan.
"It will suffice to say right now that the minister was not among the less fancied ones. He is among the top five and is understood to have a say in decision making. I will reveal his name if the situation demands", alleged the Jamui MP, who headed the party founded by his father until the rebellion by his uncle.
Training his guns at Nitish Kumar whom he has repeatedly accused of having been disrespectful towards his father, Paswan wondered whether the "pressure" on the NDA government by the JD(U) leader was "so great as to necessitate our humiliating eviction".
"Ram Vilas Paswan was the second Ambedkar. But while carrying out the eviction drive, the men in uniform stepped on his bed with boots on, trampled on his pictures, misbehaved with our helpers", alleged Paswan.
"The worst part is, my uncle who owes his political standing to the late leader, remained a mute spectator and preferred to look the other way rather than risk his own position by revolting.
Now, I am left with the people of Bihar by way of a family", said Paswan who famously called himself the "Hanuman" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but seems to have been deemed too hot to handle.