Bihar heading for mid-term polls, says Chirag

Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan, who has been battling a coup in his party, on Thursday said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) could split anytime and that the state was staring at mid-term polls

Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan, who has been battling a coup in his party, on Thursday said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) could split anytime and that the state was staring at mid-term polls.

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Accusing Kumar of engineering the split in LJP, Paswan said the Bihar CM had undermined his own party leaders and party just to keep one man (Chirag) out of the union cabinet.

“I never craved for a ministerial berth, but I still don’t know from which party’s quota my uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras has been inducted in the union cabinet. It appears Nitish Kumar has sacrificed his own party leaders, especially Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, to thwart me,” Paswan said from Samastipur, where he stayed overnight as part of his ongoing “Ashirvad Yatra”.

Paras, the younger brother of LJP founder and Paswan’s father late Ram Vilas Paswan, recently led a rebellion by five of the six party MPs and successfully ousted Chirag Paswan as leader of the party in Lok Sabha.

On Wednesday, Paras was inducted as a minister in latest reshuffle of Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi cabinet.

On whether he felt let down by the BJP, Chirag said when he was cheated by his own, he could not carry a grudge against anyone else. “Time will tell everything. I never had any personal expectations from anyone,” he said.

The Jamui MP said the way Lalan Singh, who played a key role in orchestrating split in the LJP at the behest of Kumar, was overlooked clearly points to an impending upheaval in JD(U), which could lead to mid-term elections.

“Kumar went to lengths to see Paras through and that is why the ministerial berth that belonged to Lalan Singh was snatched from him. This has caused dissatisfaction within JD-U and could lead to a split. Many JD-U leaders are also in touch with us,” he said.

Chirag said he was currently busy building up his own party organisation and his “Ashirvad yatra” would crisscross the state after which he would launch a trek (paidal yatra).

On the two factions of LJP claiming to be the real one, he said the matter was pending with the Election Commission and till it was decided, he continued to be the president of the LJP. “Making anyone minister is the prerogative of the Prime Minister. I have also written to the Lok Sabha Speaker to review his decision to accord the legislature party leader status to Paras, citing the party constitution. Now the matter is also in the court. Justice will be done one day. I had also written to PM Narendra Modi in this regard and that is why I am surprised which party quota my uncle belongs to,” he said.

He said that rest of the LJP MPs, who went with Paras, would also realise as to what did they achieve. “My uncle became a minister, but what did others get eventually? The realization will sink in sooner than later,” he said.