News Analysis India

Tag: Chirag Paswan

  • Railway minister allotted Paswan’s bungalow; Pashupati gets Sharad Yadav’s house

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The government has allotted the 12, Janpath bungalow, which was earlier given to late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, to Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while the official accommodation of former MP Sharad Yadav has been allotted to Union Food Processing Industries Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, officials said on Monday.

    The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry had recently asked Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan to vacate the bungalow where his father and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) patron Ram Vilas Paswan had been staying for nearly three decades till his demise in October last year.

    Former Member of Parliament Sharad Yadav has been staying at the 7, Tughlaq Road bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi.

    “The Janpath 12 bungalow has been allotted to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Also, the 7, Tuglaq Road bungalow has been allotted to Pashupati Kumar Paras,” the official told PTI.

    The 12, Janpath bungalow was the official address of the LJP which was holding its organisational meetings and other related events there regularly.

    The bungalow is earmarked for Union ministers and the occupants of the government accommodation have been asked to vacate it.

    At present, Ram Vilas Paswan’s wife, son Chirag Paswan and other family members have been staying there.

    Last month, a notice was issued by the directorate of estates that comes under the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to Chirag Paswan and other occupants of the bungalow asking them to vacate the accommodation.

    Ram Vilas Paswan, one of the most prominent Dalit leaders of the country, had died at the age of 74.

  • Talk of Nitish Kumar being PM material shows his ambition to snatch top post: Chirag Paswan

    By PTI
    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Monday fired a fresh salvo at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his political bete noire, whom he charged with harbouring the “ambition” to “snatch” away the top post in the country from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Paswan, who has been cornered within his own party following a recent split, sought to warn the BJP of the JD(U) de facto leader’s alleged plan through a flurry of tweets in Hindi.

    “A fresh surge in the ambition of PM material is apparent. If an alliance partner of the Prime Minister expresses such an ambition, it becomes obvious he is aiming to snatch away the post from the incumbent,” he tweeted, avoiding mentioning Kumar by name.

    His remarks came in the backdrop of an averment by Upendra Kushwaha, the JD(U)’s parliamentary board chairman, that the Bihar CM was a “Prime Minister” material.

    Kumar, who was once seen as a “secular” alternative to Modi, has distanced himself from Kushwaha’s remarks, saying he had no such aspirations and his only wish was to “keep serving Bihar as long as possible”.

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    Chirag, who succeeded the late Ram Vilas Paswan as the LJP national president only to be sidelined upon his father’s death, said in another sarcastic tweet, “Our PM comes up with Mann Ki Baat. Another Mann Ki Baat has come from PM material though the latter is driven by self-interests”.

    Seeking to twist the knife, Chirag, whose decision to pull out of the NDA cost the JD(U) dearly in the assembly polls, added, “The PM material is busy striking at the roots of the BJP on the mercy of which he is enjoying his tenure as Chief Minister”.

    Kumar is serving his fourth term in office though his party had finished with a tally less than 45, far lower than that of the BJP, which bagged more than 70 seats.

    The Jamui MP insisted that by having adopted a stance at variance with the BJP on various issues, Kumar was working on his “gupt yojana” (secret plan).

    “The PM material is working on his secret plan against the BJP with the power he has come to enjoy owing to the party’s support. By striking notes of discord on caste census, population control and CAA-NRC, the PM material has embarked on the journey to realise his ambitions. Beware!” tweeted Chirag.

    He has been professing his loyalty to the saffron party and Modi, but left licking his wounds in the wake of the faction led by Paras getting recognition and his rebellious uncle’s induction into the Union cabinet.

  • After Nitish, now Chirag Paswan disapproves of legal measures for population control

    By PTI
    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday voiced his disapproval of taking legislative measures to check population growth, diverging from the stance adopted by the BJP, his favourite alliance partner.

    The beleaguered LJP leader, who has been left cornered within his own party in the wake of a political coup staged by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras and cousin Prince Raj, was talking to reporters at the airport here upon returning from a two-day tour of Delhi.

    “It is beyond doubt that we are a country with limited resources and unbridled population growth could be disastrous. But we must try to raise public awareness instead of thinking in terms of enacting laws.”

    “Let us not forget the forced sterilizations during the Emergency which gave population control a bad name”, said Chirag.

    Notably, bills moved recently by BJP governments in Assam and Uttar Pradesh have led to a nationwide debate on the efficacy of laws in checking population growth.

    There are also apprehensions that the saffron party could use the issue to pin the blame of population growth on Muslims, pointing towards polygamy being permissible under the Islamic law and the communitys perceived revulsion for birth control measures.

    Those sceptical of the legal route include Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is at present the largest BJP ally.

    Chirag, whose acrimony with Kumar seems to have been the tipping point in the LJP, also took a veiled dig at the JD(U) leader, saying “if laws were so effective in bringing about change, why is it that liquor is still available here despite prohibition being in force for so long”.

    Sale and consumption of alcohol in the state was completely banned by the Nitish Kumar government in 2016.

    Chirag, who is understood to have felt slighted by the Narendra Modi government recognizing the breakaway faction headed by Paras who has even been inducted into the Union cabinet was also asked about the possibility of an alliance with the RJD.

    The son of late Ram Vilas Paswan had met, in Delhi, RJD national general secretary Shyam Rajak and is understood to have spoken over telephone to the party supremo Lalu Prasad and his heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav.

    “I have said it earlier and would like to reiterate that it is only during elections that we can think in terms of alliances. Right now I am here to take forward my state-wide Ashirwad Yatra which has been a huge success, a fact noted by even my acquaintances in Delhi”, he replied.

    The second term Jamui MPs attention was drawn towards barbs hurled by some JD(U) leaders who had questioned Chirags “reluctance” to visit his own parliamentary constituency.

    “Tell the JD(U) men not to worry. I will soon be there”, said the 38 years old former Bollywood actor, with his trademark swagger.

  • RJD leader meets Chirag Paswan, urges him to be part of anti-BJP alliance

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shyam Rajak has met Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan and later called for him to be part of a united opposition alliance against the BJP-led NDA in Bihar as the Dalit leader looks for his political options after being snubbed by the saffron party.

    Paswan has also spoken to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Rajak told PTI, adding that he should join forces with another young leader Tejashwi Yadav to take on the NDA.

    RJD’s Yadav is the leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly and had led a spirited fight against the ruling BJP-JD(U) alliance in the last year’s state polls but had fallen just short of victory.

    Rajak, once a close aide of JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and now in the RJD, said his visit to Paswan’s house was “personal” in nature but added that political talks take place when politicians meet.

    There is a need for building a united anti-BJP alliance over the issues of the interests of Dalit and backward castes, the RJD leader said.

    He said Chirag Paswan is the natural heir to his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy.

    With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducting Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who has joined hands with four other MPs of his party against the son of the late Dalit stalwart, as Cabinet minister in his government, political options for the young LJP leader seem limited.

    RJD leaders have been speaking in support of Chirag Paswan and urging him to join hands with the opposition alliance in Bihar.

    Though he has no MLAs with him, Paswan’s decision to formally break ties with the BJP and join the rival camp will be a psychological boost to it.

    Paswan has, however, made it clear that his current priority is to strengthen his party, and he has launched “aashirvaad yatra” in the state for the purpose.

    With Bihar having no major electoral battle for quite some time, there is no immediate reason for him to decide on his next course of action.

    In his remarks, the Jamui MP has often expressed his anguish at the BJP for not coming to his help during the crisis in his party but has still refrained from attacking its leadership.

    The LJP has six Lok Sabha MPs and five of them have elected Paras as their leader in the House.

  • Major breakup brewing in JD-U, Bihar likely to face midterm polls: Chirag Paswan

    By Express News Service
    PATNA: Jamui LJP MP Chirag Paswan, currently touring across the state on his ‘Ashiward-Yatra’, on Friday predicted a major break-up in the JD-U and the subsequent fall of the Nitish Kumar-led government adding that a mid-term assembly elections will take place in Bihar.

    After facing a revolt by 5 MPs, including his uncle (now union cabinet minister of Foods Processing in centre) Pashupati Kumar Paras, Chirag Paswan has set out on the ‘Ashirwad Yatra’ from Hajipur on July 5.

    “There will be a big break-up in JD-U paving a way to mid-term assembly elections in Bihar”, Chirag claimed in front of thousands of his supporters during the Ashirwad Yatra which reached Begusarai on Friday while lashing out at his uncle and Hajipur MP Pashupati Paras and also at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

    A couple of days ago, Pashupati Kumar Paras had claimed to be the political successor of LJP founder (Late) Ram Vilas Paswan denying this right to Chirag Paswan.

    “Chirag is the son of my elder brother, now in heaven but I am his political successor in party. If he (Chirag) has gone into the court challenging my induction in cabinet ministry; no problem I will continue fighting till the home of God”, Paras had told the media.

    Taking a jibe at the Nitish government, Chirag alleged that corruption is at its peak in Bihar and the bureaucracy remains completely intact. “The situation has turned so chaotic in the state that even the people of ruling parties are accusing the government of being in corruption. Within the next few months, there will be a bog break-up in the ruling JD-U pushing the state into the mid-term elections”, he predicted to the people.

    Replying a specific query of the media about what would be his next move after the revolted in the LJP and the subsequent induction of Paras in the Central Cabinet, Chirag Paswan said: “All possibilities in politics remain open and the decision will be taken at an opportune time depending upon the circumstances”, he said, avoiding speculation about the possibility of joining the grand alliance in the state.

    Expressing trust in public, Chirag further said: “In the coming days, the public will understand his uncle and soon his conspiracy will be exposed”.

  • Bihar inching towards the midterm polls, says Chirag Paswan

    By Express News Service
    PATNA: Jamui LJP MP Chirag Paswan, currently touring across the state on his ‘Ashiward-Yatra’, on Friday predicted a major break-up in the JD-U and the subsequent fall of the Nitish Kumar-led government adding that a mid-term assembly elections will take place in Bihar.

    After facing a revolt by 5 MPs, including his uncle (now union cabinet minister of Foods Processing in centre) Pashupati Kumar Paras, Chirag Paswan has set out on the ‘Ashirwad Yatra’ from Hajipur on July 5.

    “There will be a big break-up in JD-U paving a way to mid-term assembly elections in Bihar”, Chirag claimed in front of thousands of his supporters during the Ashirwad Yatra which reached Begusarai on Friday while lashing out at his uncle and Hajipur MP Pashupati Paras and also at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

    A couple of days ago, Pashupati Kumar Paras had claimed to be the political successor of LJP founder (Late) Ram Vilas Paswan denying this right to Chirag Paswan.

    “Chirag is the son of my elder brother, now in heaven but I am his political successor in party. If he (Chirag) has gone into the court challenging my induction in cabinet ministry; no problem I will continue fighting till the home of God”, Paras had told the media.

    Taking a jibe at the Nitish government, Chirag alleged that corruption is at its peak in Bihar and the bureaucracy remains completely intact. “The situation has turned so chaotic in the state that even the people of ruling parties are accusing the government of being in corruption. Within the next few months, there will be a bog break-up in the ruling JD-U pushing the state into the mid-term elections”, he predicted to the people.

    Replying a specific query of the media about what would be his next move after the revolted in the LJP and the subsequent induction of Paras in the Central Cabinet, Chirag Paswan said: “All possibilities in politics remain open and the decision will be taken at an opportune time depending upon the circumstances”, he said, avoiding speculation about the possibility of joining the grand alliance in the state.

    Expressing trust in public, Chirag further said: “In the coming days, the public will understand his uncle and soon his conspiracy will be exposed”.

  • Nitish Kumar agreed on Pashupati Kumar Paras, sacrificed JDU’s interests, to insult me: Chirag Paswan

    By PTI
    BEGUSARAI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has triggered severe dissatisfaction in his JD(U) by settling for just one berth in the Union council of ministers, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan alleged here on Thursday.

    Addressing a press conference in this north Bihar district as part of his state-wide ashirwad yatra, the son of late Ram Vilas Paswan, founder of the LJP, also claimed that Kumar had agreed to part with one seat for his rebellious uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras with the sole aim of belittling Chirag Paswan.

    Can there be a bigger achievement for someone like me, who is a kid in front of him? Whose age is less than the (number of years in) Nitish Kumars political career , the Jamui MP remarked wryly.

    Notably, Chirag had opened a front against Kumar ahead of the assembly elections last year when he claimed that people of the state were yearning for a change in leadership.

    He went all out against the JD(U), fielding candidates against it, though he remained loyal towards the BJP which had, paradoxically, chosen to stay by the side of Kumar.

    Nonetheless, the young leaders politics of brinkmanship hit the JD(U) hard and it finished with a dismal tally of under 45 seats, conceding the upper hand in the NDA to the BJP.

    Kumar retained the Chief Ministers seat though relations between the JD(U) and LJP continued to sour.

    The lone LJP MLA Raj Kumar Singh was upbraided for supporting JD (U)s Maheshwar Hazari when the latter got elected as the Deputy Speaker.

    Singh subsequently joined the JD(U).

    Recently, when Paras along with four other MPs, including Chirags first cousin Prince Raj, staged a political coup, the cornered LJP national president charged Kumar and the JD(U) with having fomented trouble.

    Chirag maintained many leaders in the JD(U) have felt slighted.

    Nitish Kumar had been insistent on his own quota and he gave it up all just to insult me.

    His party will come apart soon.

    Incidentally, Kumar had refused to let his party join the central cabinet in 2019 when the BJP made the offer of a token representation of just one cabinet berth to all alliance partners.

    With 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the JD(U) is at present the largest ally of the saffron party.

    On Wednesday, JD(U) national president RCP Singh became the sole leader of the party to be inducted into the national cabinet.

    Chirag also reiterated the state is heading for mid-term polls.

    The unity which we see in the so-called NDA is illusory.

    Nitish Kumar is really upset over his party having been reduced to the third position in terms of number of seats.

    His past record shows that he can change tack and let his government fall whenever it suits him.

    How else can we explain the fact that the Chief Minister spends more time at his party office than his own office? And why else has he got down to consolidating the Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Koeri) base with a vengeance, Chirag asked.

    He was also queried about the possibility of an alignment with the RJD, the main opposition party which also has the largest number of MLAs.

    The RJDs de facto leader has, significantly, said that he sympathized with Chirag who must quit the NDA and join those who believe in Ambedkars Constitution.

    At this moment, I cannot say anything about an alliance.

    These things are decided at the time of election.

    We would reach the stage once this government falls, Chirag remarked cryptically.

    Replying to a query about his getting a short shrift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom he has been likening to Lord Rama while calling himself Hanuman, Chirag said I did what a devotee was supposed to do.

    I am no longer left with the standing to question what Ram did or did not do for me.

    The LJP leader, who has been trying to mend fences with his late fathers family from the first marriage, said he will soon be visiting his native village in Khagaria district to seek the blessings of badi ma (his stepmother and Paswans first wife).

    I was touched by the love I got from didi (sister) and jijaji (brother in law) at a time when my uncle and brother betrayed me, said Chirag referring to his visit to the house of stepsister Asha Paswan, married to RJD leader Arun Sadhu.

  • Chirag Paswan moves Delhi HC challenging LS Speaker’s decision to recognise Pashupati Kumar Paras as LoP in House

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Leader of one of the factions of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chirag Pawan Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to recognise his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as the leader of the party in the House.

    Chirag also tweeted in Hindi saying that he has filed a petition in the Delhi high Court against the Lok Sabha Speaker’s initial decision recognising party’s expelled Member of Parliament Pashupati Paras Jee as the leader of the party in the House.

    Advocate Arvind Bajpai said he has filed the petition on behalf of Chirag Paswan and the Lok Janshakti Party challenging the Speaker’s decision.

    He said the review of the decision is pending with the Speaker and despite reminders no action has been taken after which they have approached the high court.

    The lawyer said the petition is currently under scrutiny.

    Paras, who was administered the oath of office as Union cabinet minister on Wednesday, has spent the larger part of his career under the shadow of his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan.

    The petition has sought setting aside speaker’s June 14 circular showing the name of Paras as leader of Jan Lokshakti Party in the Lok Sabha.

    It sought direction to that a corrigendum be issued by showing the name of Chirag Paswan as leader of the party in the House.

    “Change of leader in Lok Sabha is prerogative of particular party and in the present case, Article 26 of the Constitution of the petitioner no.

    2 (party) provide that central parliamentary board will decide who would be leader, chief whip, etc.

    in the house or in assembly,” the plea said.

    It added, “the entire action of respondent no.

    1 is contrary to rules of lok Sabha, procedure, practice, provision of constitution of petitioner no.

    2, and oppose to principle of natural justice.

    Paras, who previously headed Lok Janshakti Party’s Bihar unit and is currently the national president of its breakaway faction, began his innings in 1978 as a Janata Party MLA from Alauli in his native Khagaria district, a seat formerly represented by the late Ram Vilas Paswan.

    A cornered Chirag, who has challenged his uncle’s political coup before the Election Commission, seemed to have sensed the writing on the wall when at a press conference in Patna on Tuesday he declared he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him not to induct Paras on the LJP quota.

  • Out on Ashirwad Yatra, Chirag Paswan promises to follow father’s ideology

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Amid a tussle with his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, LJP leader Chirag Paswan kicked off his state-wide ‘Ashiward Yatra’ on Monday from Hajipur, vowing to reach every corner of Bihar. Chirag reached Patna with thousands of supporters who were least bothered about social distancing. He said the yatra aimed to seek the blessings of the people to continue with ‘Bihar 1st Bihari 1st’ motto.

    It was the first visit of Chirag after five LJP MPs led by Paras rebelled against his leadership. “My father’s birthday falls on July 5, so, we are taking out this yatra from Hajipur because it was his political ‘karmaboomi.’ My father called Hajipur ‘maa’ as he represented it eight times in Parliament,” he said.

    Lashing out at Nitish Kumar, Chirag said the leadership coup within the party was engineered by the Bihar chief minister out of political vendetta. “I will now work in line with the political ideology of my father who advocated social equality and wanted to make Bihar prosperous,” he asserted.The yatra will pass through all districts of Bihar and seek support against corruption, injustice, unemployment and poverty inflicted upon the people by Nitish in the last 15 years.

    Accusing his uncle of stabbing him in the back, Chirag said: “My uncle stands with those who always attempted my father’s political assassination and humiliated him. I will never compromise with those people.” Chirag was given a rousing welcome along the 20km route from the Patna airport to Hajipur. As many as 101 horses and many vehicles were hired to welcome him along the route.

  • Ram Vilas Paswan’s birth anniversary: An occasion for LJP factions to flex their muscles

    By PTI
    PATNA: The battle for Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy is being played out as his son Chirag and brother Pashupati Kumar Paras, heading two rival factions of the Lok Janshakti Party manoeuvre for a test of strength on the late leaders birth anniversary on Monday.

    Chirag, who has been cornered within the party he headed until recently on account of a political coup staged by his uncle, will be launching an ashirwad yatra from Hajipur, the Lok Sabha constituency his father nurtured for many decades.

    This has naturally angered Paras, who currently represents Hajipur and has replaced Chirag as the partys leader in the Lok Sabha, armed with support of all other LJP MPs, besides acquiring the designation of national president of the faction he leads.

    Paras recently expressed his disapproval of Chirags programme and questioned whether the birth anniversary of his father was an occasion for paying tributes or to seek blessings of the people.

    He also advised his nephew, with whom he has burnt his bridges, to hold his programmes in Jamui the Lok Sabha seat he is representing for the second consecutive term.

    With numbers on his side, Paras has managed to lay claim on the partys resources like its state headquarters building here, where a function will be organized on the occasion of the jayanti of its founding president, who breathed his last in October last year.

    Nonetheless, he faces the daunting challenge of rallying the Paswan community in the state, who looked upon the former Union minister as their icon, with Chirag expected to leave no stones unturned to project himself as the rightful heir of his fathers legacy.

    Acrimony between the two factions has already started playing out on the streets.

    On Saturday, Chirag supporters waved black flags at local MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser in Khagaria, which incidentally also happens to be Paswans home district.

    Kaiser is a former state Congress president who, upon joining the LJP, secured the ticket from Khagaria in 2014 and went on to become the only Muslim MP from the NDA at that time.

    Five years later, trust was again reposed in him by Ram Vilas Paswan for the party ticket and his siding with Paras camp is being viewed by Chirag supporters as a betrayal.

    It would be interesting to note the stance adopted by NDAs major constituents in Bihar BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) on the birth anniversary celebrations.

    The JD(U) has been facing accusations of having engineered the split to avenge Chirags rebellion against Nitish Kumar in the assembly polls.

    The BJP has been charged with silence by Chirag who has always held that he was to Prime Minister Narendra Modi what Hanuman was to Lord Rama.

    The saffron party has not shunned Chirag openly, though Speaker Om Birla giving recognition to the breakaway faction shows that it is not averse to doing business with the rival camp either.

    The day also coincides with inauguration of silver jubilee celebrations of RJD, arguably the party with the largest presence in the state whose leader Tejashwi Yadav has already held out an olive branch to Chirag, reminding him of the close ties between the late Paswan and his father Lalu Prasad.

    Notably, the RJDs programme for its silver jubilee function includes a special mention of garlanding of Late Ram Vilas Paswans portrait a seemingly innocuous move but pregnant with meaning for the politically savvy public of the state.