The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national president Chirag Paswan went to meet party Lok Sabha MP and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras at his residence in Delhi on June 14.
This comes shortly after reports emerged that five of the party’s six Lok Sabha MPs are said to have joined hands to oust Chirag Paswan as their leader in the House by electing his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in his place and have written to the Speaker OM Birla to convey their decision.
Chirag Paswan, who took over the party’s mantle following his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s death in 2020, has now been left virtually isolated at the top.
The rebel group, which includes MPs Prince Raj, Chandan Singh, Veena Devi, and Mehboob Ali Kaiser, has long been unhappy with Paswan's style of functioning, reported news agency PTI citing sources.
While there has been no official comment from Paswan, his uncle Paras has said that he has “not broken the party, but saved it.”
“There are six MPs in our party. It was the desire of five MPs to save our party. So, I've not broken the party, I've saved it. Chirag Paswan is my nephew as well as the party's national president. I have no objection against him,” said Paras on June 14.
He further said that all the five MPs have submitted letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker. “We will go and meet him as and when he orders,” Paras said.
The LJP MP also alleged that “wrong decisions” led to his party’s marginalisation in Bihar.
LJP had won six seats in 2019 Lok Sabha – Hajipur (Pashupati Kumar Paras), Vaishali (Veena Devi), Samastipur (Ram Chandra Paswan and later his son Prince Raj), Khagaria (Mehboob Ali Qaisar), Nawada (Chandan Singh) and Jamui (Chirag Paswan).
Sources close to Paswan have blamed the Janata Dal (United) for the split, saying the party had long been working to isolate the LJP president after his decision to go all out against CM Nitish Kumar in the 2020 assembly polls damaged the ruling party badly. The rebel group may back the JD(U) in the coming days, the sources said.
The LJP had walked out of the NDA in Bihar in 2020 due to its opposition to Nitish Kumar and contested the state assembly polls on its own. The party put up candidates in all the seats where the JD(U) was in the fray. However, it largely spared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) except for a few seats.
Although the LJP could win only one seat in the Bihar polls, it apparently made a serious damage to the JD(U), whose tally fell to 43 from 71. The lone LJP MLA Raj Kumar Singh, who had won the Matihani seat of Begusarai in the state elections, has already joined the JD(U).
However, when Paras was asked if he met JD(U) leaders, he denied it. “No. This is 100 percent wrong. LJP is our party, the organisation is strong in Bihar,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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