© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
For Pashupati Kumar Paras, it is now a matter of political survival. The former Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) chief who has severed ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), citing the “humiliation” meted out to him during last year’s Lok Sabha polls when he was not given a single ticket to contest from Bihar, is likely to join the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan.
Sources in the RJD told The Indian Express that the Mahagathbandhan could give a few seats to the RLJP in the coming Assembly polls. “Though the RLJP is yet to contest an election, we hope Paras will be able to cut into the voter base of (LJP-RV leader) Chirag Paswan, who has proved his electoral value, especially among members of the Paswan community,” said an RJD leader.
The probable political realignment ahead of the Assembly polls also assumes significance as Scheduled Castes (SCs) comprise a sizable portion of Bihar’s population (19.65%), with the Paswan community being the largest among them at 5.3%.
By welcoming Paras into its fold, the Mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD, Congress and the Left, is looking to narrow the gap with the NDA. The Opposition alliance won 110 of the 243 seats in the 2020 polls, falling just 12 short of the majority.
Since former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan founded the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in 2000, he was seen to be the sole leader of the Paswan community and pulled off a surprise in 2005 after his party pocketed 29 Assembly seats, while garnering 12% of the votes.
Paras, the brother of Ram Vilas Paswan and a former Hajipur MP, split the LJP in 2021, less than a year after Paswan’s death and floated the RLJP with the other faction, the LJP (Ram Vilas) headed by his nephew Chirag.
“We have faced enough humiliation from the NDA. It is now time to leave them and chart a new political course. We will join any alliance that gives us the respect we deserve,” he said at a party meeting on Monday. Prince Raj, the son of Ram Vilas Paswan’s other brother Ramchandra Paswan and former Samastipur MP, too, slammed the NDA, saying it had no moral right to speak about Dalits as more than five lakh of them were languishing in jails across the state in connection with the liquor law cases.
Paras, though a constituent of the NDA, failed to convince its leadership to field him from the Hajipur seat in 2024. His party did not contest even a single seat, with the NDA reposing its faith in the LJP (RV), which delivered a 100% strike rate and won all five Lok Sabha seats it contested. Chirag went on to win Hajipur, which his father represented eight times.
The LJP (RV)’s stellar performance established Chirag as his father’s political heir and also elevated him as a key component in the NDA in Bihar.
A BJP leader said that Paras’s decision to part ways with the NDA was “good riddance”. “Let the Mahagathbandhan try him out. He has hardly been on the ground. Chirag is the sole leader of the Paswan community and the one who carries forward Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy,” the leader said.
