Chirag Paswan to campaign for BJP in Bihar bypolls, could return to NDA, but with riders

With both seats having a sizeable population of scheduled caste Paswan voters, Chirag could become an important player in these seats. Even though the death of LJP patriarch Ramvilas Paswan in 2020 has left a void in Bihar’s Dalit politics, it is his son Chirag who looks to be the prime stakeholder of Paswan votes. Among Bihar’s 16 per cent SC populace, Paswans are about 4.7 per cent according to the last caste census, from 1931. With Bihar lacking a Dalit leader who has appeal across SC castes and across the state, BJP is betting on Chirag, more so after the fresh social realignment in the wake of JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar walking out of the NDA and into the Mahagathbandhan, in August 2022.

Chirag told The Indian Express: “It is true that my party will support BJP candidates on two Assembly bypoll seats. I had a long meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah. As for an alliance with the NDA, I have to meet PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the coming days, to discuss several things.”

Chirag had been weighing his alliance options for a while. But with Nitish aligning with the RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, there could be a problem of plenty in the seven-party Grand Alliance, which also has three Left parties, besides the Congress. Under these new political conditions, both the BJP and the LJP(R) see it mutually beneficial to align again. The BJP being left with no alliance partner has cast Chirag as an important player.

Chirag had to suffer big political blows since his father’s death. His party split into LJP(R) and National Lok Janshakti Party (NLJP)—headed by his estranged uncle and Hajipur MP Pashupati Kumar Paras. Five of the six MPs also joined Paras. Chirag, who would have expected to get a cabinet berth after his father’s demise, saw it slip away to his uncle. He also had to vacate his father’s official residence for several years at 12, Janpath.

However, the first hint of BJP keeping Chirag in their thoughts, came during Ram Vilas’s first death anniversary in 2021, when the PM wrote an emotional letter to Chirag, lauding his father’s contributions in national politics. Chirag, who is said to have worked on behalf of the BJP to take on Nitish Kumar in the 2020 Assembly polls, had been somewhat responsible for bringing down JD(U)’s tally to 43 seats, from 71 seats. Even as LJP’s lone MLA, Raj Kumar Singh from Matihani, crossed over to JD(U), Chirag decided to invest his time in Bihar.

The scion can still bargain hard with the BJP. His father’s party, the LJP, had performed exceptionally well as an NDA ally in the 2014 and 2019 General Elections, winning six seats in both. In comparison, LJP had not done well when in alliance with RJD, as in the 2009 Lok Sabha, when Ram Vilas himself had lost his Hajipur seat. A senior BJP leader said: “While we still don’t know LJP(R)’s terms and conditions for aligning with us, we know Chirag Paswan will greatly add to the NDA’s performance.”