Every party wants me to be on its side, says Chirag
‘Will align with those with Bihar first, Bihari first vision’
Patna, March 10: Former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan on Sunday asserted that every party wants him to be on its side, indicating he could tilt towards one that could offer a better bargain.
Mr Paswan, an NDA ally, has been getting feelers from the “Mahagathbandhan”, the Opposition coalition in Bihar.
Addressing a rally in the Sahebganj Assembly segment, the LJP young leader dropped ample hints that he was weighing his options and could tilt towards the side with a better bargain.
“I can see the posse of media persons here who are anxious to know whom Chirag Paswan is aligned with. I wish to tell them that Chirag Paswan is aligned only with the people of Bihar,” said the young leader, who has often sworn by his loyalty towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, likening him to Lord Ram and himself to Lord Hanuman.
“Every party, every coalition wants Chirag Paswan to be on its side,” he said, adding that this was because people were enamored with his “Bihar first, Bihari first” vision that seeks to pull the state out of chronic backwardness.
In his speech, he made yet another attempt to project himself as true heir to his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, calling himself “sher ka beta”.
He refrained from mentioning by name bete noires in the NDA: the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar — who heads the JD(U) — and Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras (uncle) — who split the late leader’s party.
The young leader, however, spoke at length about the “conspiracies” he had to face, “aimed at breaking my home, my family and my party, though I have demonstrated that Chirag Paswan cannot be cowed down”.
The rally at Sahebanj under the Vaishali Lok Sabha seat, which the LJP won in the last two elections, is being seen as a fresh attempt by Paswan to claim his father’s legacy, after having earlier declared that the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), a splinter group that he now heads, will contest Hajipur, which the late leader had represented several times.