Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), or the LJP (R), one of the two factions after the LJP founded by his father (late) Ramvilas Paswan split in 2021, on Thursday made an impressive debut in the Nagaland, winning two of the 16 seats it fought in the elections for the 60-member assembly, the results of which were declared on Thursday.
In sharp contrast, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U), which has had a rather successful electoral history in Nagaland, won only one of the seven seats it fought there. Some of its leaders blamed it on Chirag Paswan, saying it was a reprise of the 2020 Bihar polls when he had fielded candidates of the then united LJP against JD-U and severely damaged its prospects though his own party won just one seat.
JD-U has been contesting Nagaland polls since 2003, when it fought on 13 of the total 60 seats and won three, with a vote share of 5.8%. In 2008, it contested on three seats and lost all. In 2013, it contested on three seats and won one. In the last polls in 2018, it contested on 14 seats and won one seat, with a total vote share of 5.49%.
This time, JD-U polled 3.3% of the total votes cast.
Lalu Prasad’s RJD, which contested on seven seats, has drawn a blank.
JD-U leaders allege that Chirag Paswan has once again damaged their party’s prospects, like he did in the Bihar assembly polls of 2020, when the undivided LJP contested on 137 out of the 243 assembly seats and limited JD-U tally to just 43 seats.
“JD-U in Nagaland broke prior to elections. All those who contested on LJP (R) tickets were earlier with JD (U). Paswan has again damaged our prospects in Nagaland, like he did in Bihar in 2020,” said a senior JD-U leader in Bihar, wishing not be named.
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Afaque Ahmad Khan, the party’s national general secretary and in-charge of the north-east, however, denied this. “This is not true that they were from JD-U. But BJP and LJP (R) connived in the same way as they did in Bihar in 2020 assembly polls to spoil the game of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). They were mostly BJP candidates and not of JD -U,” said Khan.
The performance is a jolt to the party’s national party ambitions, JD-U leaders conceded in private. “Yes, our performance was not up to expectations,” said Khan.
JD-U was hoping for success in Nagaland to fulfil its long-standing ambition of getting a national party status.
“We already have state party status in three states – Bihar, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. If we perform well in Nagaland, it would be an added bonanza,” Khan had told HT in January.
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For a regional party to attain the national status, it has to be a recognised as a state party in four states, with at least six per cent of the total vote share and at least one seat, or eight per cent vote share without a seat.
Meanwhile, LJP (R) is upbeat after its performance in Nagaland. “We came second on eight seats and were third on three others. On one seat, we lost by a very nominal margin. Our vote share is 8.65%, which is more than the combined vote share of JD-U and RJD (0.50%),” said Ashraf Ansari, LJP (R) vice president. “Parties will level baseless allegations. The win shows Chirag Paswan has emerged as a youth leader,” he said.
