PATNA: Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) chief Pashupati Kumar Paras is likely to resign from the Narendra Modi cabinet after his party was not offered any seats in the seat-sharing pact announced by the NDA on Monday for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.
Paras held a meeting with senior leaders of the party at his official residence in New Delhi to discuss the future course of action. A senior leader of the party, present at the meeting, said that it was unanimously decided to snap ties with the NDA in the wake of the seat-sharing development.
“Our party has not been given proper respect while striking a seat-sharing deal within the NDA constituents. Now we are free to take any decision and contest elections independently,” the leader revealed, requesting anonymity as a formal announcement in this regard would be made later.
Apart from Paras, MPs Prince Raj (Samastipur), Chandan Singh (Nawada), and former MP Surajbhan Singh were present at Monday’s meeting.
RLJP has decided to field its candidates in the seats it had won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Undivided LJP had contested Hajipur, Khagaria, Samastipur, Vaishali, and Nawada seats in the last Lok Sabha election.
A national vice president of RLJP said that talks on entering into a pre-poll alliance with the Opposition grand alliance in Bihar were also held at the meeting. Paras reiterated his intention to fight from the Hajipur seat, which has been allotted to his nephew Chirag Paswan’s LJP(R).
Paras had earlier hinted at snapping ties with the NDA if his party was not given due respect. “We are free to take any decision if due respect is not given in the NDA,” Paras had told the media last week. He had made it clear that he would take a final call after the seat-sharing deal was finalized among NDA allies and a formal announcement made.
