Chirag to take out ‘Ashirvaad Yatra’ on father’s birth anniversary

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan has announced to take out Ashirvaad Yatra in Hajipur on July 5 to mark the birth anniversary of his father Ram Vilas Paswan

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan has announced to take out Ashirvaad Yatra in Hajipur on July 5 to mark the birth anniversary of his father Ram Vilas Paswan.

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Paswan’s announcement came following a meeting of the LJP national executive on Sunday, which endorsed his leadership and hit out at a faction headed by his paternal uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras for its work against the party’s constitution.

Ram Vilas Paswan, who founded the LJP, nurtured Hajipur as his favourite constituency. He died as a minister in the Union cabinet and member of the Rajya Sabha.

Currently, Paras, who rebelled against Chirag along with four other party MPs and got recognised as the LJP parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha, represents Hajipur constituency in the lower house.

The march taken out from Hajipur will continue for two months with party members covering all 38 districts and culminate in Patna in the form of a grand rally.

Meanwhile, the members who attended the national executive meeting also demanded the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna for the LJP founder, saying that he deserved recognition for his work.

Asserting that 90% of the national executive members were with him and attended the meeting, Chirag Paswan slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar for conspiring to divide the LJP after it forced the JD(U) to become the third party after the Assembly elections. “Uncle (Paras) has acted against the party’s constitution along with rest of the MPs and hence the party suspended them all,” said Chirag after the meeting.

A press communique issued by the LJP’s principal general secretary Abdul Khaliq claimed that 63 members attended the national executive meeting.

“Of the total, 24 joined the meeting through virtual mode. One national vice president, four national general secretaries, nine national secretaries and 20 state party presidents participated in the meeting and reposed faith in Chirag’s leadership,” said Khaliq.

A day ago, Paswan met Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and petitioned him to reconsider his decision to recognise Paras as the parliamentary party leader against the constitution.

He also said that the party would take legal action if his demands were not considered by the speaker within the constitutional framework of the party.