RLJP chief Pashupati Kumar Paras resigns as union minister amid displeasure with NDA

New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party president and Union minister Pashupati Paras on Tuesday quit the NDA-led cabinet after the BJP preferred his nephew over him in seat distribution. 

Addressing a press conference after getting no seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha Election, he said, "Yesterday, the NDA announced the list of 40 candidates for Bihar Lok Sabha. Our party had five MPs and I worked with utmost sincerity. Injustice has been done with us and our party. Therefore, I resign from the post of Union minister,"

On Monday, the NDA, in its seat-sharing announcement for Bihar, set aside 17 seats to BJP, 16 for the ruling JD(U) and five seats for the Lok Janshakti Party, the party founded by Paras’s nephew, Chirag Paswan.

A seat each has been set aside for Jitan Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha and the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party. 

Paras, who has been ignored to make way for his nephew in the saffron coalition, has reached out to leaders in the Opposition camp, sources in the know said.

Paras had also announced that he will contest the Hajipur seat, which has been Ram Vilas Paswan’s traditional seat. However, the seat has been given to Chirag’s faction as per the new seat distribution. Paras had fought from the seat in 2019, and after his win , was inducted into the Cabinet. 

While there has been speculation that Upendra Kushwaha, too, was unhappy at just been given one seat, and that he was in touch with the Opposition bloc, a picture he posted on Tuesday with BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, put matters to rest.

The RLSP had won three seats in 2014 – Sitamarhi , Karakat and Jehanabad. But in 2019, it contested from six seats as part of the UPA, but lost all the seats.