Alliance with NDA main point of contention between rebel MPs, Chirag Paswan, says Pashupati Kumar Paras

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Pashupati Kumar Paras on Wednesday said that the alliance with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2020 Bihar Assembly election was the main reason behind the power tussle between him and his nephew and party leader Chirag Paswan. “We wanted to contest the election in alliance with NDA but he (Chirag Paswan) didn’t agree to it. This is the reason why LJP is on the verge of an end,” news agency ANI quoted Paras as saying.

He also said that Paswan removed him as the state president of the party despite not holding any power. “You must ask Chirag Paswan why he removed me from [the] state president’s post. He did it even when he didn’t hold power. We contested Bihar elections under my supervision and all 6 MPs won. We received the highest percentage of vote as per election commission’s report,” Paras further said, while talking to reporters.

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Earlier on Tuesday, the LJP’s national executive committee expelled all the five rebel MPs — Pashupati Kumar Paras, Prince Raj, Chandan Singh, Veena Devi and Mehboob Ali Keshar — for anti-party activities. Similarly a working committee meeting was convened at Paras’ residence in Delhi, which decided to remove Paswan as the party’s leader. It also made senior leader and party vice-president Suraj Singh alias Suraj Bhan as the national working president.

Singh said that the two leaders, Paswan and Paras, would come together and stay in the party, earlier on the day. “Both (Chirag Paswan & Pashupati Kumar Paras) will come together & stay in 1 party, don’t ignite this issue. Chirag should understand that it’s been long that his uncle worked under him & now he should let uncle lead,” ANI quoted the party’s national working president as saying.

Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan said that the Janata Dal (United) party had been attempting to divide the LJP since the Bihar state assembly elections last year. “During the Bihar elections and even before that, there was a constant attempt by some people and especially by the Janata Dal United (JDU) to break our party,” ANI quoted Paswan as saying, earlier in the day.