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LJP’s new generation aims to expand footprints in Bihar using old tactics
With nominations for the first phase beginning today, the time is running out for NDA partners to strike a seat sharing deal.
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) may have never been a major force in Bihar politics but has always made its presence felt since its inception in 2000, when Ram Vilas Paswan set up the party after splitting from Janata Dal on the issue of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Since then, LJP has been a significant player with its politics revolving mostly around Dalits, who constitute over 16% votes in Bihar.
Though it could never win enough seats in Bihar to expand its footprints further, LJP has remained a party that could not be ignored and has always ended up on the right side, so much so, that RJD chief Lalu Prasad once described Ram Vilas Paswan as the ‘musam vigyanik’ (weather scientist) for his uncanny knack of predicting the poll outcome much in advance and set his sails accordingly.
Two decades later, LJP has undergone a generational shift with Chirag Paswan taking over as the party’s national president and his cousin and former MP Ramchandra Paswan’s son, Prince Raj, becoming the state president. The party has also coined a new slogan: ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’. Chirag identifies himself as a ‘yuva Bihari’ (young Bihari) on his twitter handle to bond with the youth and to break the image of the party being a family enterprise.
Chirag is being seen in his party as a potential CM candidate in a state where Nitish Kumar is projected as a leader with no competition from within and outside the NDA. Chirag is apparently aware that this could well be the last innings of Nitish Kumar as the Bihar chief minister.
Chirag’s aggressive posturing against Nitish Kumar, while maintaining a soft approach towards the Narendra Modi-led BJP, could be an indicator of his ambition and the political craft, inherited from his father, who has always gotten along well with parties with contrasting ideologies, depending upon the situation.
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Soon after taking over the party reins, Chirag had said that 2020 Bihar assembly election would be his big test and his objective would be to “expand the footprints of the party in Bihar and even beyond in states with a sizeable support base like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh”.
However, to emerge as a Dalit leader of national stature, Chirag will have to begin with expanding his party’s profile in Bihar. That perhaps explains why he appears to be bargaining so hard while maintaining pressure on the alliance till the very end as seen in a recently circulated video clip where LJP leaders are reposing full trust in their chief’s ability to take a decision in the interest of the party.
The BJP, too, may not want to let another ally leave NDA in the wake of Akali Dal’s exit over new farm laws. Senior BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadav and Devendra Fadnavis categorically stated, after their arrival in Patna for seat-sharing talks on Wednesday, that the alliance would remain intact, indicating that LJP was going nowhere.
With nominations for the first phase beginning today, the time is running out for NDA partners-- whose tussle despite the ‘all is well’ claims has gone to the wire--to seal a seat sharing deal.
Also Read: BJP appoints Fadnavis as Bihar election in-charge, seat sharing talks begin
The tug of war for seats was also seen before the Lok Sabha election, when BJP had to climb down to accommodate both the JD-U and the LJP in the interest of continuing the alliance.
While BJP and JD-U contested 17 LS seats each, LJP got six seats plus a Rajya Sabha seat. This time too, BJP has offered 27 assembly and two legislative council seats to the LJP. With HAM-S not yet inducted officially into the NDA despite aligning with the JD-U, BJP has been left with 2016 seats to seal the final deal.
Though the LJP bagged six seats each in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections with nearly 100% strike rate, it struggled badly in the assembly elections of 2010 and 2015, bagging just two and three seats respectively in the 243-member assembly. It contested 75 seats in 2010 and 40 seats in 2015.
Bihar Election 2020: Full coverage
In the two elections held in 2005, one in February and the next in October, LJP had independently contested 178 and 203 seats respectively. While it could win just 10 seats in the October polls compared to the 29 won earlier in February, it was enough to divide votes to make it easier for the Nitish-led NDA to end the 15-year-old RJD rule.
After 15 years of Nitish rule, LJP is again flexing muscles.
“Chirag is doing deft politics like his father. With age by his side, he is in for a tough bargain, but he is taking a calculated risk by not antagonizing the BJP. He knows what he needs to do and it may be part of a larger strategy. He speaks against Nitish Kumar, but praises Narendra Modi. He has a plan and he is working accordingly,” said NK Choudhary, political analyst and former head, department of economics, Patna University.
