PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP-Ram Vilas) chief and MP Chirag Paswan’s differences with his uncle and union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras have apparently increased with the former formally returning to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Both leaders are staking claim to the Paswan family's traditional Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency in the state.
As there are no signs of a thaw between Chirag and Paras, the BJP seems to be in a fix.
Meanwhile, the NDA has received a boost ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election with Chirag's return, who is believed to have a good support base among the Paswan voters in Bihar who form six per cent of the state's population. Chirag Paswan is the son of late Ram Vilas Paswan who founded the Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar.
Soon after attending the meeting of NDA allies in New Delhi on Tuesday, Chirag said that the BJP had positively considered all his concerns and also claimed that the NDA would win all 40 seats in Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"It will be against coalition dharma for me to speak about the details of my discussions with BJP leaders," he added.
Chirag also said that he snapped ties with the NDA in 2020 due to his opposition to Bihar chief minister and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar who was in the alliance at the time and that he had no problem with the BJP. Chirag who represents Jamui Lok Sabha constituency said that his father Ram Vilas Paswan had decided to quit the NDA as Nitish had returned to the NDA in 2017. At the time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told his father that the LJP's alliance was with the BJP and not JD (U).
When asked about his ties with his uncle and his party, the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), Chirag said that both of them were now part of the NDA alliance and hence should focus on winning the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats in the elections.
Earlier, union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras had said that he wouldn't vacate the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Who will contest from which seat is to be discussed at the internal meeting of the allies,” he had told mediapersons. His elder brother Ram Vilas Paswan had chosen him as his political heir and asked him to contest from the seat, the minister said.
Rebuking his uncle, Chirag said that "making such remarks doesn't get you nomination on a seat" and added that decisions like these were always taken "during internal discussions of alliance partners at the appropriate time."
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party has reacted sharply to Chirag returning to the NDA fold.
RLJP MP and Chirag's cousin Prince Raj recalled how Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav used to remark that Nitish had teeth in his stomach and went on to say that now he (Prince Raj) could say that Chirag also had teeth in his stomach.
On the controversy over the distribution of seats for the Lok Sabha elections, the RLJP MP said that everybody had the right to contest the election from whichever seat they wanted.
He added that whoever wanted development would have faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We will remain with those with whom we are with presently", Prince Raj remarked.
Prince Raj won from Samastipur (SC) constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But he sided with his uncle Paras when LJP split on the initiative of Paras, who had a cabinet berth in the Narendra Modi cabinet.
Ram Vilas Paswan had been elected to the Lok Sabha as its member for the eighth term from Hajipur seat before he was given Rajya Sabha membership and made a cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government. “Ram Vilas ji had won for a record eight terms from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat except on two occasions - in 1984 and 2009,” political activist Dayanand Singh stated.