Dispute over family legacy comes in the way of NDA’s seatsharing talks in Bihar
A bitter chacha-bhatija (unclenephew) rivalry is proving to be a hurdle in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s efforts to finalise seatsharing among the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in Bihar.
The bone of contention is the Hajipur (reserved) Lok Sabha constituency, a bastion of Ram Vilas Paswan, the founder of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) who was elected to Lok Sabha from here eight times.
His brother, Pashupati Kumar Paras, and son, Chirag Paswan, have staked claim to this seat and refuse to budge, sources said.
Senior BJP leader and a former State president, Mangal Pandey, along with the State party chief and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, met Bihar incharge Vinod Tawde in Delhi on Tuesday to break the ice between the two but met “with no success so far”, said party sources.
The LJP split in 2021 after the death of Ram Vilas Paswan. The undivided LJP had won six seats in the 2019 general election. After the split, five MPs aligned with Mr. Paras, leaving Mr. Chirag to fend for himself.
Later, the LJP split into two factions — the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party led by Mr. Paras, and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Mr. Chirag.
Mr. Paras is currently the Union Food Processing Industries Minister and the sitting MP from Hajipur (reserved) seat while Mr. Chirag represents Jamui (reserved) seat in Parliament.
Sources said Mr. Chirag was keen on fielding his mother Reena Paswan from Hajipur in a bid to unseat his uncle from Bihar’s political arena.
The BJP has reportedly offered six seats to Mr. Chirag , with the caveat that both uncle and nephew split three seats each.