LJP MPs rebel against Paswan in silent coup
Five of the six MPs move to elect his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as their representative in LS
PATNA/NEW DELHI: In a silent coup, five of the six Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) parliamentarians on Sunday night joined hands against their leader Chirag Paswan and elected his paternal uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as the party’s representative in the Lower House, and called it a decision taken out of compulsion.
The leaders also ruled out a merger with any other party in the state.
“Ye majboori ka faisla hai. (This is a decision taken out of compulsion). We were feeling suffocated,” said Pashupati Kumar Paras, the MP from Hajipur and brother of the late Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the founder of the LJP, told HT on Monday.
“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 that it now faces threat of extinction,” said Paras, who was slammed by the party leadership during the assembly election in the state in 2020 after he praised Nitish Kumar and his work. Paras had to retract from his statement the same evening.
Party officials aware of the developments said that Paras would be formally made the national president and leader of the party in the Lok Sabha by replacing actor-turned-politician Chirag Paswan.
“We met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed him a letter regarding these new developments,” Paras said.
The news of a possible change of guard in the party was followed by high drama when Chirag Paswan, who is recuperating from Covid-19 with a cannula inserted in his hand, drove to meet Paras at his Rajendra Prasad road residence in Delhi, but was left waiting outside the main gate for around 15 minutes.
Paswan reached the residence at 11.45 and after being made to wait, managed to meet Paras’s wife. According to a person aware of the details, he left after spending an hour and 40 minutes at his uncle’s residence.
Besides Paras, the party MPs who have now rebelled against Chirag Paswan’s leadership include his cousin Prince Raj (LJP state president and Samastipur MP), Mehboob Ali Qaiser, Veena Devi and Chandan Singh.
In a letter to the Speaker, the five MLAs said, the parliamentary board at its meeting on June 13 at 6 pm in Delhi has with consensus decided to make Paras the head of the parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha and Mehboob Ali Kesar as his deputy. Chandan Singh has been named the chief whip.
LJP had contested on six Lok Sabha seats and won on all with a vote share of 0.52%.
Speaking about growing dissent in the party after induction of some of the leaders, the Hajipur MP said, “Around 99% of the
party leaders and cadres wanted to be in the [Bharatiya Janata Party-led] NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and contest Bihar assembly elections together. However, influenced by some, it was decided to contest elections independently and everybody knows the humiliation it suffered. It was a wrong decision and today the LJP doesn’t have a single representation in the assembly.”
Chirag Paswan had opened a front against Nitish Kumar in the assembly elections in November 2020, fielding 143 candidates against all JD(U) candidates, many of them rebels from the BJP. Paswan had claimed that he wanted to help the BJP form its own government in the state where the people yearned for a change in leadership.
LJP, however, won just one seat.
Although the NDA managed to secure a majority and Kumar was backed for another term, the JD(U) ended up with a much smaller tally, conceding the upper hand to the BJP, which now has the lion’s share in the council of ministers in Bihar with two of them being deputy CMs.
The LJP suffered a setback in April when its lone MLA Raj Kumar Singh joined the JD(U) in the presence of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Singh, the MLA from Matihani constituency in Begusarai district, was earlier served a show cause by his party after he voted in favour of the NDA candidate for the post of deputy speaker in the Bihar assembly last month.
In February, LJP’s lone MLC Nutan Singh had quit the party and joined the BJP, to which her minister husband Neeraj Kumar Singh belongs.
“Only four parties were known in Bihar – BJP, JD(U), LJP and RJD [Rashtriya Janata Dal]. After my brother’s death and debacle in the assembly polls, the party lost its status,” he added.
He also said he does not harbour ill will against his nephew. “Chirag Paswan is my nephew as well as party’s national president,” Paras said.
Paswan did not respond to messages. A person close to him said he has been “taken aback by the family feud that has threatened his hold over the party.”
Paras, however, ruled out a merger with any party. “The party is intact; only the leadership has changed. The LJP, which was founded in 2000, is a part of the NDA since 2014 and we will continue to be with the NDA,” he said, and heaped lavish praise on Nitish Kumar.
“He is a vikas purush (development man). Bihar has developed under his regime, and we will support him in this endeavour,” he added.
People aware of the developments in the NDA said on condition of anonymity that ever since the LJP damaged JD(U)’s prospects in 36-40 seats in the assembly elections, the Nitish Kumar led party has been working silently to damage the LJP. More than 200 party leaders had joined the JD(U) and even Paras had a meeting with JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, a close associate of Kumar.
JD(U) national president RCP Singh reacted with a sense of vindication to the developments in the party founded by late Ram Vilas Paswan. “It is a well known adage that as you sow, so you reap. Chirag Paswan was heading a party which was with the NDA. Yet, he adopted a stance that damaged it in the assembly polls. This led to a sense of unease within his own party,” Singh said.
With buzz growing about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet, political watchers believe that the development is aimed at thwarting Paswan’s chances to join the government.
An LJP functionary, who did not want to be named, said; “There has been talk that Paras or Prince could be offered a berth in the Union council of ministers. Since, the JD(U) has made clear their views on not being in favour of Chirag Paswan, a change in leadership could be a compromise that can keep the party intact and part of the NDA alliance.”
A second leader, who also did not wish to be named either, said, Paswan has taken the first step to reach out to his uncle and will do his best to prevent a split in the party. “There is a possibility that he will agree to step down as the president to avoid a split in the LJP,” the second leader said.
If the party splits then both groups will have to prove their majority in order to retain claim of the party symbol.
The BJP for its part distanced itself from the issue. “This is an internal matter of the party and the family and we hope it is resolved at the earliest,” said BJP spokesperson Guru Prakash.