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Journalism of Courage
Union Minister of Food Processing Industries and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan has created ripples in Bihar politics in the run-up to the state Assembly elections by reiterating that his top priority was Bihar which, he said, was “calling” him.
Chirag told a news channel a few days ago, “My focus is on Bihar first, Bihari first. My state is calling me.”
Earlier, at the Express Adda on April 8, Chirag had asserted that he believed in the concept of “Bihar first” and “Bihari first”, saying “I also have MY (Mahila and Yuva) formula. Out of my five MPs, two are women. I talk about 14 crore Biharis… The moment Biharis come out of Bihar and outside caste, they do so well in every field – media, corporates and bureaucracy.”
Replying to a question then, Chirag had also said: “My father (late Ram Vilas Paswan, a prominent Dalit leader and ex-Union minister) was interested in national politics. But unlike my father, I want to see myself in state politics.” He, however, did not set any timeline for his plunge into Bihar politics or for contesting the state Assembly elections.
The 42-year-old three-term MP, Chirag is a key ally of the ruling NDA which would be led in the Assembly elections, slated for October-November this year, by Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar.
The LJP(RV) chief’s repeated bid to highlight his “Bihar first” approach has come at a time when various NDA allies are engaged in posturings ahead of the beginning of their seat-sharing negotiations for the Assembly polls.
A smaller NDA ally, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), which has only one Lok Sabha MP, has been demanding 40 seats out of the state’s 243 for the Assembly polls. This was spelt out by HAM(S) chief and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi at a recent public function.
An LJP(RV) leader told The Indian Express: “We were given one seat less by the NDA in the last year’s Lok Sabha polls and were told that we would be compensated in the 2025 Assembly elections. The NDA should also look at our 100% strike rate in the Lok Sabha polls, when we won all five seats allotted to us. The NDA won 30 Lok Sabha seats of 40 in Bihar. If one divides 243 seats by the NDA’s Lok Sabha tally, it comes to eight Assembly seats for each Lok Sabha seat. By this yardstick, we should be given 40 seats in the Assembly polls.”
Another LJP(RV) leader conceded that Chirag’s recent Bihar-centric remarks had been part of their strategy to claim a “respectable share” in the seats for contesting the Assembly polls. “One thing is clear: Chirag Paswan is not contesting in this election. He might well have set his eye on the 2030 Assembly polls though,“ he said.
After facing a huge setback in 2021 when his party split following his father’s demise, Chirag made a remarkable comeback in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with the LJP (RV) winning all five seats it contested in Bihar, with the bigger NDA allies BJP and JD(U) winning 12 seats each out of 17 seats and 16 they respectively contested. In contrast, the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan won altogether 9 seats.
Ahead of the 2020 Assembly polls, the Chirag-led LJP had walked out of NDA and fought the polls on its own. Of the 135 seats the LJP contested then, the party fielded its candidates against the JD(U) in 115 seats. The JD (U) had later alleged a “BJP hand” behind Chirag’s move. Though the LJP won only one seat (Matihani, Begusarai), it ended up damaging the JD (U), which was reduced from 71 seats in the 2015 polls to just 43 seats in 2020 – much below the BJP’s 74 seats. The LJP garnered 5.66% votes, which was more than several other smaller state parties like the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (1.77%), CPI (ML) Liberation (3.16%), Vikassheel Insaan Party (1.56%) and HAM-S (0.89%).
The BJP and JD(U) camps have linked Chirag’s “Bihar is calling me” pitch to his “bargaining bid for more seats” in the Assembly polls. A BJP leader said: “Unless a party has at least 15% vote share, it would not dare to contest on its own in Bihar. Chirag Paswan knows that he had proved only a spoiler in the 2020 polls. He is well placed now as a Union Minister and we do not think that he would attempt any bravado at this stage.”
Without mentioning Chirag, senior BJP leader and Bihar Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, while replying to a question, told reporters in Patna Sunday: “No actor would become Bihar CM. Only a grounded politician deserves this position”. Notably, Chirag had started his career as a film actor but quit after doing a couple of films.
A JD (U) leader said, “Chirag had damaged us in many seats in 2020. But this time, he is strongly with us and we hope for a very good mutual conversion of votes.” He said Chirag may play a bigger role in the 2030 Assembly polls as “political equations could change drastically by that time and there could be fresh realignments then too”.
