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
Vijay Swaroop and
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
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