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LJP's Chirag Paswan sidelined, reaches out to uncle

By | Written by Meenakshi Ray, New Delhi
Jun 14, 2021 12:34 PM IST

LJP's Chirag Paswan is not their leader, the rebel party leaders have said.

LJP's Chirag Paswan on Monday went to meet party lawmaker and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in New Delhi after five of the party's Lok Sabha MPs rebelled. According to news agency PTI, Paswan drove to his uncle's residence and was allowed inside after waiting for some time in his car. Paras, however, was not home, PTI reported. Chirag Paswan's cousin and MP Prince Raj also lives at the same address.

LJP's Chirag Paswan has not commented on the development so far. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)
LJP's Chirag Paswan has not commented on the development so far. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

Prince Raj, the LJP's state president and Samastipur MP, along with Chandan Singh, Veena Devi and Mehboob Ali Qaiser--said to be unhappy with Chirag Paswan's way of working--elected Pashupati Kumar Paras in his place. They have also written Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla and conveyed their decision of electing Pashupati Kumar Paras as the LJP leader in the Lower House.

'Out of compulsion'

"I have not broken the party but saved it," Paras, an MP from Hajipur, insisted adding that his group will remain a part of the BJP-led NDA and that Chirag Paswan can be part of the organisation.

He also said that 99 per cent of LJP workers were unhappy with the turn of events in Bihar as Paswan led his party against the JD(U) in the 2020 assembly polls and did not perform well.

Pashupati Kumar Paras told HT that the change was done out of compulsion to correct the course of the party while staying in the National Democratic Alliance, and there was no intention to merge with any party. “Yah majboori ka faisla hai. (This is a decision taken out of compulsion). We were feeling suffocated,” he said.

“After the death of Ram Vilas Paswan on October 8, 2020, some of the unilateral decisions taken by the party leadership pushed the LJP to the brink of extinction,” Paras said.

Paras would be formally made the party’s national president and the leader of the parliamentary party, according to LJP leaders aware of the development. “We met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed him a letter regarding these new developments,” Paras said.

Paras also praised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as a good leader and "vikas purush" (development-oriented man) indicating the difference with his nephew Chirag Paswan, who has been a strong critic of the JD(U) president.

"Chirag Paswan is my nephew as well as the party's national president. I have no objection against him," he also said.

On his part, Chirag Paswan has not commented on the development.

Also read | 175 LJP functionaries join BJP; party disowns turncoats

In March this year, as many as 175 leaders, ranging from state to district and block-level office bearers, besides panchayat presidents of the LJP, switched over to the BJP. However, LJP's executive chairman Raju Tiwari claimed the desertion was "blown out of proportion." “No, they are not our leaders. Some of them were thrown out of the party months ago, there are many who are not even the primary members,” Tiwari said then.

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