Chirag Paswan, LJP's 'humble' Jamui nominee

Painting a humble picture of himself, actor-turned-politician Chirag Paswan – LJP’s candidate from the Jamui seat – sought to strike an emotional chord with locals during a road show.

“Had my father Ram Vilas Paswan wished, I would have contested from Delhi, Mumbai or any other high-profile constituency. But I chose Jamui precisely because I am one of you,” Paswan said. However, candidates from opposition parties are of the view that Chirag Paswan, who flopped as an actor, is trying to cash in on his father and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s popularity.

“Everyone knows that he debuted in Bollywood through a flop movie Miley Naa Miley Hum, opposite Kangana Ranaut in 2011. When he could not carve out a niche for himself in tinsel town, he chose to make a debut in politics from an alien place,” said a staunch RJD supporter Bhudeo Sahu.

But Chirag’s family vehemently dismissed the “outsider” tag. “Jamui, before becoming a district in 1991, was part of Munger, which in the good old days also had Khagaria within its jurisdiction. Paswanji may be contesting from Hajipur, but he is originally from Khagaria,” Ram Vilas Paswan’s son-in-law Mrinal explained to Deccan Herald.

“Jamui is a new constituency since it came into being in 2009 and Chirag is new blood who seems to be promising,” said Purshottam, a senior official at a private telecom company here. Incidentally, Chirag is the son of Ram Vilas’s second wife Reena Sharma Paswan. It is believed that Paswan’s first wife Raj Kumari still stays in Khagaria, where she remains incommunicado.

The family does not talk much about Paswan’s personal life. The Jamui parliamentary seat existed till the 1971 polls, but was dissolved later, well ahead of the 1977 election. After the delimitation exercise in 2008, it came into being in 2009.