Patna: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said on Sunday that his party would support the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming by-polls in Bihar.
“All the decisions I made [thus far] For the betterment of Bihar. We have decided to support and campaign for BJP candidates.
Chirag was talking to the media a day after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
Though he did not divulge the details of the meeting, Chirag said his talks with the BJP would continue for an alliance in future.
He further said that he has been in talks with the BJP for the past few months and will have another round of talks with both Shah and Prime Minister Modi next month.
The development comes two months after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party, the Janata Dal (United), once again quit the BJP and returned to the Grand Alliance – the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left alliance.
For BJP, the changed political equations in the state make Chirag’s alliance even more important- Bihar has 6 percent paswan Voters who have supported LJP in the past. This is the part the BJP hopes to use to counter the caste arithmetic of the RJD-JD(U) in both the upcoming elections and future elections.
‘Conversations for months’
Talking to the media, Chirag said that many important BJP leaders including Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai have been in talks with him for the last few months.
Chirag’s relationship with the BJP has seen its ups and downs. He pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance just before the assembly elections in 2020, citing his feud with Nitish Kumar.
Staged in June 2021 by his Union Minister uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras a coup Within the party, establishing himself as the leader of the LJP’s legislature party in Parliament. Chirag expelled his uncle Paras and five other Members of Parliament for anti-party activities and warning The BJP said that any talk of alliance in future would be subject to the removal of his uncle from the post of Union minister.
On Friday, the Bihar BJP president announced that Chirag would campaign for his party in the by-elections to be held on November 3.
However, despite these announcements, LJP (Ram Vilas) leaders told ThePrint that they were still unaware of the developments.
We have no idea what Jaiswal is saying. Whatever talks are happening should be in Delhi and Chirag Paswan himself will reveal it when he comes to Patna,” Bihar LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Raju Tiwari told The Print.
The announcement has come as a relief for the Bihar BJP – the party expected Chirag to reach Patna on October 29 and make the announcement. But his late arrival worried BJP leaders in the state. A BJP leader said, “It is a matter of relief that Chirag reached today and confirmed Jaiswal’s announcement.”
precondition
Despite the announcement, however, Chirag made it clear that his return to the alliance would come at a cost. Sources close to him told ThePrint that any future alliance between the two parties hinges on two conditions.
A close aide of Chirag said, “The first thing to do is to remove his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras from the Union ministry.” “Shaho Yes Asking Chirag to merge his party with his uncle’s LJP.
The second condition is that the BJP will not have any dealings with Nitish Kumar – who is called Chirago. plead guilty For last year’s split in his father’s party Lok Janshakti Party – futuristic, the leader’s aide told ThePrint.
The source said Chirag was still wary of how the BJP stood as the JD(U) “played a role” in splitting the LJP last year.
The party is also upset over how Paras was made a Union minister instead of Chirag and the way the BJP ignored Chirag’s claim for a Rajya Sabha seat following the death of his father, late Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan in 2020. There was a vacancy, said the source in LJP (Ram Vilas).
Courting Chirago
In the late 90s, the late Ram Vilas Paswan cemented his position as the kingmaker in both national and Bihar politics. His position also strengthened his hold on his caste-paswans, who are a sub-caste among the Dalits.
Dalits constitute 16 per cent of the total population of Bihar and Paswans form a major part of the population.
“There is not a single parliamentary seat that does not have at least 50,000” [Paswan] voters and [not a single] assembly seat [with] At least 10,000,” BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel told ThePrint.
The two assembly seats where polling will be held on November 3 also have a significant number of Paswan voters. According to a JD(U) MLA, Gopalganj has 15,000 Paswan voters while Mokama has 18,000 voters.
In 2020, after Chirag was out of the NDA, he fielded several LJP candidates against the JD(U) and although his party won only one seat, he created a significant dents In the JD(U)’s tally, the party was reduced to 43 seats. The LJP is believed to have spent as many as 40 seats to the JD(U).
As long as Nitish Kumar remained in the NDA fold, Chirag was kept out – even though the BJP never completely snapped its ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi often referred to the late Ram Vilas as an ally, whom he remembered.,
But after Nitish Kumar’s exit from NDA, BJP has become eager to solicit A source in LJP (Ram Vilas) said that Chirag’s support.
Chirag has proved that he was his father’s true heir – his party, the LJP (Ram Vilas), got more votes than the Congress in the Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan bypolls last year. He has also often proved to be a crowd puller,
Meanwhile, his uncle Pashupati Nath Paras was Astound Last year when he visited his parliamentary constituency Hajipur after Partition.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)