Chirag Paswan may be removed as LJP leader in Lok Sabha

Ram Vilas Paswan's brother Pashupati Kumar Paras has broken away from the LJP with five party MPs, floating a new party

In some big bad news for Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son, Chirag Paswan, five of Lok Janshakti Party's (LJP) six Lok Sabha MPs barring him have staged a coup of sorts pitching his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as Leader of House replacing him, a development that is sweet revenge for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

LJP MPs have already met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla apprising him of their decision to choose Paras as Leader of Lok Sabha.

Battling rebellion in the party, Chirag Paswan on Monday drove to the residence of uncle Pashupati Paras at 18, Rajendra Prasad Road in New Delhi. After high drama outside the residence of Paras and a 10-minute long wait, Chirag was allowed entry, where he spoke with Paras.

A sullen looking Chirag ducked media queries. While Paras hailed Nitish Kumar as 'Vikaspurush,' making no bones where his loyalty lies, Team Chirag chose to state that they are with the NDA.

LJP sources said that in order to save the party from faltering, Chirag proposed to resign from the post of national President of LJP but that the party should not be divided. While Chirag wanted his mother Reena Paswan to be made party chief in place of him, the faction led by Paras is not quite keen on it.

Split imminent?

The split looks imminent and is yet another setback for Chirag, who has been receiving one jolt after another ever since he severed ties with NDA ally Janata Dal (United) (JDU) in Bihar, fielding candidates on JDU seats and targeting Nitish Kumar in the October 2020 Assembly polls, which though ensured that BJP emerges the main party in the state and JDU substantially reduced, brought no gains for LJP, which could win just one seat.

In April this year LJP's lone Bihar MLA Rajkumar Singh had joined the JDU after voting in favour of JDU candidate Maheshwari Hazar in the post of Deputy Speaker in March that had prompted the party to seek explanation from him. Earlier in February, LJP's lone member in the Bihar legislative council Nutan Singh, married to a BJP minister in the state, joined the BJP.

Also Read | BJP sacks its Bihar MLC whose utterances against Nitish Kumar could rock NDA boat

The sidelining of Chirag by his own Lok Sabha MPs after a Chacha (uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras) and Bhatija (nephew Chirag Paswan) slugfest may perhaps be music to Kumar's ears, whose proximity with Paras is well known. In 2017, Paras was inducted into Nitish's cabinet when he was not even an MLA. Later he was made an MLC by Nitish Kumar. In 2019, Paras became an MP.

Sources say that the Paras-led group in the party will back JDU.

A simmering broil

The power tussle in LJP began in 2014 when Chirag had become BJP's Parliamentary Board Chairman. The tussle kept simmering but the senior Paswan (Ram Vilas Paswan kept it under wraps and made his son party chief in November 2019 against the wish of his brother. Union Minister Paswan's death in October 2020 took away that command structure in the party. The massive debacle of LJP in Bihar polls after its decision to go solo and target Nitish Kumar, proved the proverbial 'last nail in its coffin' adage.

In February, Nitish Kumar's meeting with LJP Nawada MP Chandan Kumar Singh had kicked in speculations but Kumar had then insisted that not much should be read into this. The same month, over 200 mid-level and lower-rung leaders of LJP joined the JDU.

That Chirag Paswan's party was getting sandwiched between competing ambitions of BJP and JDU in Bihar was evident when the LJP leader did not turn up for an NDA meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on January 30 citing ill-health. JDU, however, claimed that the invitation was withdrawn after its opposition as it does not consider LJP an NDA ally.

Nitish Kumar, despite getting substantially lower number of seats than BJP is heading the government there but his trusted leader in BJP Sushil Kumar Modi was not named for Deputy Chief Minister this time. Recently JDU had taken strong umbrage to BJP poaching its six MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh reminding the ruling party at the Centre of 'coalition dharma'.

Eye on the big pie

BJP, which rules the neighbouring UP, and has, in the past, ruled another neighbouring state — Jharkhand, has its eyes for a long time on Bihar, where it could not have a Chief Minister of its own despite having emerged as the single largest party this time and having more number of seats than the JDU. There is a tension at the middle rung between cadres of BJP and JDU, both of which are trying hard to strengthen themselves for the bigger pie-

In the first week of June, the BJP had to sack MLC Tunnaji Pandey to keep the alliance going, days after Pandey had launched a vitriolic attack against Kumar sparking a bitter war of words. A big section in JDU believes that BJP had a hand in pitting Chirag Paswan against JDU in last Assembly polls as well as behind such occasional utterances of lower and middle-level BJP leaders against the Chief Minister.

Clearly the Bihar politics pot is boiling and a churning seems underway. A similar Chacha-Bhatija (uncle-nephew) political slugfest had taken place in Uttar Pradesh between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav but that was settled in favour of the nephew. In Bihar, however, it seems the other way round.