News Analysis India

Tag: Chirag Paswan

  • Chirag alleges Bihar CM may get him shot out of political vendetta  

    Express News Service

    PATNA: The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan stirred up a controversy on Saturday by saying that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may get him shot.

    Talking to reporters in Jamui, Chirag alleged that Nitish can get him killed for attacking his ‘wrong’ policies frequently. Chirag is currently on a visit to his parliamentary constituency. 

    Chirag further said, “I keep on opposing his (Nitish’s) wrong policies and express my feelings fearlessly, which doesn’t suit him. He may get me killed out of political vendetta.”

    Assailing Nitish for poor law and order situation in the state, the Jamui MP alleged that the criminals enjoyed patronage from the ruling dispensation. As a result, the gun-totting men were on the prowl and targeting people at their will.

    The LJP (Ram Vilas) chief recounted the difficulties faced by the people of his constituency due to the social reform campaign meeting addressed by Nitish on Friday. In his sarcastic attack on the Chief Minister, Chirag said he (Nitish) enjoyed the security cover much like the President of India. The barricades erected at different locations during Friday’s meeting pointed to it, he added. He, however, posed faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

    Referring to the Bihari students stranded in Ukraine, he said that the Prime Minister was monitoring the emerging situation and would ensure the safe evacuation of Indian students from war-hit European country as early as possible.

  • Police use water cannons, batons to quell Chirag Paswan’s protest against Nitish government

    By PTI

    PATNA: LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan and several of his supporters were detained by police that used water cannons and batons to break up a protest on Tuesday demanding dismissal of the Nitish Kumar government over its alleged failure on “all fronts”.

    The march began at the historic Gandhi Maidan, and Paswan and his supporters were detained near the Income Tax roundabout, about 4 km away, as they tried to proceed to the Raj Bhavan in the city’s high-security zone, shouting slogans against the government and carrying placards that read ‘Bihar Bachao’ (Save Bihar).

    They had an argument with police when they insisted on proceeding to the Raj Bhavan to hand over a memorandum to Governor Phagu Chauhan.

    Provoked, they tried to break the police cordon, prompting a baton-charge and burst of water cannons.

    Officials said some protesters were detained after they scuffled with police and blocked the road, which was later cleared.

    Paswan and others were escorted to Sachiwalaya Police Station after being taken into preventive custody before they were let off.

    “The Nitish Kumar government has failed on all fronts, including providing employment to youths, maintaining law and order, providing education and health. We want immediate dismissal of the Nitish Kumar government,” Paswan told reporters before he was detained.

    Patna senior superintendent of police Manavjit Singh Dhillon told PTI, “It was a preventive detention. The party workers and their leader were released on personal bond.”

    After his release, Paswan along with some party leaders met the protocol officer to the governor and submitted a memorandum highlighting the problems faced by the common man due to the alleged “anti-people” policies of the state government.

  • Rahul Gandhi, Rajnath Singh visit Chirag Paswan on his father’s first death anniversary

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan on his father’s first death anniversary amid overtures by opposition parties to the Dalit leader to switch over to their camp.

    Senior BJP leaders and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Mahendra Nath Pandey, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury also met the young leader to pay their tributes to his father.

    Chirag Paswan said his father enjoyed excellent personal relations with politicians cutting across party lines, which was underlined by the presence of members of the ruling BJP-led NDA as well as opposition parties.

    Many other leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar sent their condolence message as well, he noted.

    He reiterated his party’s demand for Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, for his father, who was part of several governments headed by rival alliances at different points of time.

    The young MP thanked the Modi dispensation for giving his father Padma Bhushan award.

    Gandhi visited Paswan’s Janpath residence, home to his father Ram Vilas Paswan for over three decades, and spent time with him and his family members as people paid homage to one of the tallest Dalit leaders who passed away last year.

    In a tweet Gandhi said, “Heartfelt tributes to Ram Vilas Paswan on his first death anniversary. Also met Lalu Prasad Yadav on the occasion. Was happy to see him in good health.”

    Gandhi’s visit to the LJP leader comes amid a growing distance between him and the BJP after the ruling party dumped him for another LJP faction, now given the name Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, headed by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a Union minister.

    Opposition leaders in Bihar, including RJD president Yadav and his son Tejashwi Yadav, have been urging Chirag Paswan to switch over to their camp.

    Sources, however, added that not much should be read into Gandhi’s visit to Paswan’s residence as he had invited leaders of various parties.

    At a commemoration event he had held in Patna last month, leaders from various parties, including the BJP and the RJD, were in attendance.

    Chirag Paswan has, however, kept his cards close to chest, stressing that his immediate priority is to build his party.

    A trenchant critic of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, he has been less vocal in attacking the BJP and has, at times, even praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  • Chirag Paswan thanks EC for allotting LJP (Ram Vilas) as his party’s name, announces bypoll candidates

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Thursday announced the names of his party’s candidates for the Bihar assembly bypolls to be held later this month.

    Addressing a press conference, he also announced the name of his party’s candidate for the bypoll to Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat.

    In Bihar, Anju Devi will contest the by-election from Kusheshwar Sthan assembly seat and Chandan Singh from Tarapur, Paswan said.

    Milan Raghunath Gorat will contest the by-election from Dadara and Nagar Haveli Lok sabha seat.

    The bypolls will be held on October 30.

    “The new name of our party carrying my father’s name (Ram Vilas Paswan) has brought a new energy and zeal into the party. We will take our leader’s energy forward,” Chirag Paswan told reporters.

    He also thanked the Election Commission for allotting a new name to his party with election symbol ‘helicopter’.

    The Election Commission allocated names and poll symbols to the Chirag Paswan and the Pashupati Kumar Paras factions as an interim measure on Tuesday, days after barring them from using the name of the Lok Janshakti Party or its symbol ‘bungalow’.

    In separate letters to Paswan and Paras, the poll panel said it has allotted the name ‘Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’ and the election symbol ‘helicopter’ to the Chirag Paswan group.

  • LJP dispute: Chirag Paswan, Pashupati Paras factions allotted separate names, poll symbols by EC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission allocated names and poll symbols to the Chirag Paswan and the Pashupati Kumar Paras factions as an interim measure on Tuesday, days after barring them from using the name of the Lok Janshakti Party or its symbol ‘bungalow’.

    In separate letters to Paswan and Paras, the poll panel said it has allotted the name ‘Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’ and the election symbol ‘Helicopter’ to the Chirag Paswan group.

    “Having considered your request, the commission has allotted the name ‘Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party’ for your group and has allotted the symbol ‘Sewing Machine’ as the symbol to be allotted to the candidate set up, if any, by your group in the current by-election,” the EC told Paras.

    In an interim order on October 2, the EC had barred both the factions from using the name of Lok Janshakti Party or its symbol ‘bungalow’ till the dispute between the two is settled by the poll panel.

    The interim order, signed by Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and fellow Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, covers the October 30 bypolls to 30 assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats across India, including two assembly constituencies in Bihar.

    The order would “continue till the final determination of the dispute in the matter” according to provisions of the Election Symbol (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

    The EC had said both the groups were free to choose the names of their liking, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party Lok Janshakti Party.

    “Both the groups shall also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission for the purposes of the current by-elections, including Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly constituencies in Bihar,” the order had said.

  • Some leaders greed for power has weakened LJP’s movement as voice of deprived: Chirag Paswan

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Taking a veiled dig on Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national president Pashupati Kumar Paras, senior leader Chirag Paswan on Sunday said that the “greed for power” of some party leaders weakened his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s movement for uplifting the deprived in society.

    The comment comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday froze Lok Janshakti Party’s symbol amid a tussle between factions of Chirag Pawan and Pashupati Kumar Paras.

    “My father started a movement across the country to raise the voice of the deprived in society. LJP became the voice of the movement. But the movement weakened after some party leaders got trapped in the greed of power,” Paswan tweeted in Hindi.

    “This is an interim decision of the Commission. They have given thought to our arguments,” he added.

    The ECI issued a statement saying that “neither of the two groups of Paswan or Chirag will be permitted to use the symbol of LJP”.

    The Commission further directed both the groups to choose, as an interim measure, the names of their groups and the “symbols which may be allotted to the candidates set up, if any, by the respective groups,” latest by October 4.

    The LJP is a recognised party in Bihar with the symbol ‘Bungalow’.

    Both Chirag Paswan and newly-elected LJP national president Pashupati Kumar Paras, earlier in June, had written to the Election Commission over the right on the party symbol, sources had said.

    On June 13, Paras, the younger brother of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan was recognised as the leader of LJP in Lok Sabha in place of Chirag Paswan after five of the six-party MPs gave a letter in his support.

    The Speaker accepted Paras as the floor leader of the LJP in the lower house. In a revised list of floor leaders of parties, Paras was listed as the Lok Sabha LJP leader.

    The LJP was formed by former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in 2000. Paswan, a heavyweight leader in Bihar politics, passed away in October 2020.

  • EC freezes LJP symbol till dispute between Chirag Paswan, Pashupati Paras factions settled 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Saturday barred the Chirag Paswan and the Pashupati Kumar Paras factions from using the name of Lok Janshakti Party or its symbol ‘bungalow’ till the dispute between the rival groups is settled by the poll panel.

    The commission also said that the two factions can use free symbols available to field their candidates for the bypolls to two assembly seats in Bihar in the coming days.

    “Both the groups shall be known by such names by as they may choose for their respective groups, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP),” the order read.

    Bypolls for the Kusheshwar Asthan and the Tarapur assembly seats in Bihar will be held on October 30.

    The interim order, signed by Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and fellow Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, covers the October 30 bypolls to 30 assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats across India, including two assembly constituencies in Bihar.

    The order would “continue till the final determination of the dispute in the matter” according to provisions of the Election Symbol (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

    The Election Commission (EC) noted that a final settlement, as demanded by one of the factions, was not possible before October 8.

    The date of nomination for the bypolls started on October 1 and will close on October 8.

    The poll panel said it is issuing the interim order seeking to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests.

    “Neither of the two groups led by Pashupati Kumar Paras and other led by Chirag Paswan shall be permitted to use the name of the party Lok Janshakti Party. Neither of the two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol ‘Bungalow’, reserved for Lok Janshakti Party,” the order read.

    It said both the groups are free to choose the names of their liking, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party Lok Janshakti Party.

    “Both the groups shall also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission for the purposes of the current by-elections, including Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly constituencies in Bihar,” the order read.

    Both the groups have been directed to furnish, latest by 1 pm on Monday, October 4, the names of their groups by which they may be recognised by the commission, and the symbols which may be allotted to the candidates fielded, if any, by the respective groups.

    “They may indicate the names of three free symbols, in the order of their preference, anyone of which may be allotted to their candidates by the Commission,” the EC said.

    After the demise of LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan last year, his son Chirag Paswan and the late leader’s brother Paras have staked claim over the party leadership and had approached the poll panel in this regard.

  • Tejashwi Yadav, Chirag Paswan meet sets off Bihar rumour mills

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Amid speculation that Bihar’s LJP and RJD will join hands against the BJP and JD(U), two young leaders from either party Chirag Paswan of LJP and Tejashwi Yadav of RJD met on Wednesday for the first time since the recent Assembly elections. 

    The young leaders demonstrated good chemistry between them during the meeting and the subsequent media briefing. This has not only gotten the rumour mills churning, but also hinted that a tightrope walk awaits the NDA, especially the JD(U).

    The meeting assumed significance as it comes following a statement by RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav that Chirag Paswan has established himself as the leader in Bihar, and that both Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan should come together. Though neither of the two leaders spoke anything about the possible political alignment in the future, the chemistry they displayed is a reflection of the growing political affinity between them.

    “Chirag Paswan is like a member of my family. I have learned a lot when I entered politics in 2010 form honourable (late) Ram Vilas Paswan,” Tejashwi Yadav told the media. Chirag Paswan, addressing Tejashwi Yadav as bhai said his father Ram Vilas Paswan had a very close and cordial relationship with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the two worked closely with each other.

    “My father always maintained a cordial relation with leaders of all parties. I have come to invite Tejashwi bhai and family to my father’s first death anniversary function,” Chirag said.

  • New political chemistry in Bihar? Chirag to invite Tejashwi for Paswan’s death anniversary event

    By ANI

    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP Chirag Paswan is scheduled to meet Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday to invite him for an event on September 12 to mark the first death anniversary of his father and former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, said sources.

    “Chirag Paswan and Tejaswi Yadav are meeting for the first time after the Bihar election on Wednesday. Chirag is going to invite Tejashwi for his father’s first death anniversary programme,” said sources.

    Sources said the death anniversary event would be significant in the political context as it comes at a time when Chirag Paswan is in the middle of a bitter dispute with his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras over the claim of his father’s legacy.

    The LJP was formed by former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in 2000. Paswan, a heavyweight leader in Bihar politics, passed away in October 2020.

    Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, the younger brother of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan along with five other MPs, had met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed over a letter to him seeking removal of Chirag Paswan as party chief. Birla had accepted Paras as the floor leader of the LJP in the Lower House. In a revised list of floor leaders of parties, Paras was listed as the Lok Sabha LJP leader.

    After being sidelined by the NDA, and his uncle Pashupati Paras who was sworn in as Union Minister, Chirag decided to go ahead with Aashirvaad Yatra in Bihar with a motive to secure his political future.

    Amid the power tussle in the LJP, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in August said he wants Chirag Paswan and Tejashwi Yadav to come together to form an alliance.

    Prior to that, Tejashwi Yadav had also called Chirag for joining hands with the Opposition. Chirag Paswan has also called Tejashwi Yadav his “younger brother” on several occasions.

  • LJP leader Chirag Paswan plans mega event on father’s death anniversary, invites PM Modi, Sonia Gandhi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: LJP leader Chirag Paswan on Tuesday said he has invited top national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, for an event in Patna on September 12 to mark the first death anniversary of his father and Dalit stalwart Ram Vilas Paswan.

    The event assumes heightened political significance at a time when Chirag Paswan is embroiled in a bitter dispute with his uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras to claim the legacy of his father.

    He also went to Paras’ residence here to give him an invite.

    Speaking to PTI, the young leader also rejected speculation that his party wanted his father’s Delhi residence of over three decades to remain under its control by installing a bust of Ram Vilas Paswan and asserted that as a lawmaker he will not do anything that is considered encroachment or any violation of law.

    “As of now the government has permitted me to stay here. The bust is a symbol of the party’s love for the late leader and will be shifted whenever an alternative arrangement is provided. The bust should never be seen as an attempt on my part to encroach the property,” he said.

    Noting that government rules do not allow converting any residence into a museum or a memorial, he said he would never support anything that goes against this and asserted that the party plans to install his father’s bust or statue in every district across the country.

    The Urban Development Ministry had issued an initial notice for vacating the residence soon after the death of Ram Vilas Paswan, but the family has been allowed to stay there for now after Chirag Paswan took up the matter with senior government functionaries, sources said.

    On the September 12 event, Chirag Paswan said he has spoken to Modi and Shah to invite them and has also met Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in this regard.

    Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, with whom the LJP leader has had sharp differences, and RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav have also been invited.

    Paras is also likely to organise an anniversary event on October 8, the day Ram Vilas Paswan had died last year.

    He is also expected to invite top national leaders.

    Chirag Paswan, who left for Bihar on Tuesday with his family, is going by a traditional calendar to hold the event on September 12.

    Political observers will be keenly watching the attendance at the Jamui MP’s event at a time when he has been touring Bihar on an “Aashirvaad Yatra” to rally support for his LJP faction.

    Five of the six party MPs have joined hands with Paras.

    While the BJP has given a ministerial berth in the Modi government to Paras ignoring Chirag Paswan’s claims to the party, opposition leaders, including Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav, have reached out to him.

    Though he has voiced displeasure over the BJP’s treatment of him, he has so far maintained silence about his future political moves, saying his priority now is to build his party.