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Tag: LJP

  • Tejashwi asks Chirag Paswan to quit NDA; blames JDU for the split in LJP

    By PTI
    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday held out an olive branch to Chirag Paswan, saying the beleaguered LJP leader must reconsider his continuance in the NDA, led by the BJP which swore by the RSS ideology instead of the Constitution.

    The leader of the opposition also charged the ruling JD(U) in Bihar with being the “mastermind” behind the split in the LJP, which has left Chirag cornered within the party headed by him till recently and founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.

    Yadav, who was talking to reporters at the airport here upon his return from New Delhi after a long stay, also sought to remind Chirag that in 2005 and 2010 similar splits had been engineered by the JD(U) in the LJP while his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad had “helped Ram Vilas get a Rajya Sabha berth when he had lost his own Lok Sabha seat”.

    “Chirag Paswan must now decide whom he wants to stand with those abiding by the Bunch of Thoughts (a famous polemical work by RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar) or those for whom the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar is supreme”, said Yadav.

    When pointed out that the JD(U), controlled by its de facto leader Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, claimed that it knew “nothing” about the crisis in the LJP which witnessed a revolt by Chirags uncle and former state minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, Yadav responded mordantly.

    “Nitish Kumar never knows anything. Perhaps he does not even read the papers. He must be unaware that in 27 out of 38 districts of Bihar, the price of petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre”, Yadav remarked.

    When asked about the ruling partys criticism of his protracted absence from Bihar, Yadav, who led the RJD to an impressive performance in the last assembly polls, asserted that he had been away to look after his ailing father.

    “The ruling dispensation must be aware that I am a beta (son) besides being a neta (leader). Moreover, what would I have been able to do for the people here when even those in power had been forbidden from venturing out”, Yadav said, in an oblique reference to a circular issued by the state cabinet secretariat whereby ministers had been asked to refrain from undertaking tours during the COVID-induced lockdown.

    He also said doctors attending his father, one of the most colourful and keenly-watched politicians of the state, have hinted that he might be able to come to Patna “very soon”.

    Prasad, convicted in many fodder scam cases, has been staying in the national capital upon his release from jail following bail granted by Jharkhand High Court.

  • ‘BJP’s silence hurts, relations with them cannot remain one-sided’: Chirag Paswan on LJP crisis

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: “Hurt” at the BJP’s silence while he battles challenges from within his party, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan said on Tuesday his relations with the saffron party cannot remain “one-sided” and he will consider all possibilities about his future political steps if attempts to corner him continue.

    Paswan said his father Ram Vilas Paswan and he always stood by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP like a “rock” but the saffron party was not there when he expected their intervention during these “difficult” times.

    Underlining that he retains his faith in Modi, Paswan said, “But if you are cornered, pushed and forced to take a decision, then the party will consider all probabilities….The LJP will have to take a decision about its political future based on who stood by it and who did not.”

    To questions on whether the BJP reached out to him during the current crisis and speculation about its role in the split, he said it was not “appropriate” for the saffron party to keep mum while the JD(U) worked to “engineer” a split in the LJP.

    ALSO READ | Chirag Paswan-headed LJP faction urges EC to seek its view over Paras group’s claims

    “I expected them (BJP) to mediate and try to sort whole things out. Their silence definitely hurts,” he said

    The BJP has maintained that the LJP crisis is an internal matter of the regional party.

    Asked why he kept mum on the BJP while targeting another NDA constituent JD(U), Paswan said it was the saffron party that has kept mum on him.

    He alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s party played a “visible” role in splitting his party and has had a history of doing so.

    Kumar never wanted a Dalit leader to gain in stature and had earlier tried to weaken the LJP founder and his father, he said, citing a history of the JD(U) wooing LJP leaders to its side.

    Amid speculation that his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who has led a group of five MPs against Paswan and has been recognised as the LJP leader in Lok Sabha, may be inducted in the Union Cabinet, the two-term MP asserted that if the BJP offers Paras a ministerial berth as an LJP nominee then such a decision will not be acceptable to him.

    Paras may be inducted as an independent or in any other capacity but his representation as the LJP nominee will not be acceptable to him, Paswan said, adding that it is now for the Election Commission to decide on the rival claims about which faction represents the party.

    ALSO READ | Had no option but to oust dictator Chirag Paswan, says LJP MP Pashupati Kumar Paras​

    Asked if he still sees himself as a constituent of the BJP-led NDA at the national level, he said, “I don’t know. It is for the BJP to decide whether I am part of the alliance or not. I have proven my honesty as an ally with them….But this relation cannot be one-sided forever.”

    “If in return you do not recognise me, you help those who have separated from my party or are seen standing with them directly or indirectly. Then I cannot remain in this capacity forever. If you do not give me recognition and respect, then eventually as party president I will have to take a decision in future,” Paswan said.

    He, however, added that he would like the relations of “faith” that developed between his party and PM Modi when his father was around to continue.

    Ram Vilas Paswan was a Cabinet minister in the Modi government since it came to power for the first time in 2014 and till his death last year.

    Chirag Paswan said “friends” from the rival RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar have reached out to him for joining them but added that his priority is not an alliance but to deal with the political and legal battle with the rival faction on hand.

    Amid talks of various anti-BJP regional parties coming together and NCP leader Sharad Pawar seen to be working on it, he said, to a question on whether he sees a role for himself in the grouping, that “one can never say never” in terms of possibilities.

    On all contentious issues during the Modi government, be it revocation of article 370, abolition of instant triple divorce among Muslims or the enactment of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, his father and he had been vocal supporters of its stand and noted that the JD(U) took a different line from the BJP.

    He has announced “Aashirvad Yatra” from Hajipur in Bihar from July 5, the birth anniversary of his father, as he battles the rival front for the party’s ownership.

    While five of six LJP MPs are with Paras, Chirag Paswan has asserted that over 90 per cent of the party’s office-bearers are with him.

    Paras, on the other hand, has claimed that his faction is the real LJP.

    He was also elected president of the party recently, a development rejected by Paswan as “unconstitutional”.

    Paras and four other MPs have been expelled from the party by Paswan-leaded group.

  • Had no option but to oust dictator Chirag Paswan, says LJP MP Pashupati Kumar Paras

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Four days after heading a coup against Chirag Paswan, LJP’s Hajipur MP Pashupati Kumar Paras claimed he had no option but to oust his nephew who was a “dictator”. “When the nephew becomes a dictator, what will the uncle do? Ask him (Chirag), why he had removed me from the post of Bihar state president illegally?” Paras told the media after being elected unopposed as the LJP national president on Thursday.

    Chirag had removed Paras from the post of the state president in 2019 following which the latter is said to have a grudge against his nephew. Regarding the party’s rule of ‘One Person, One Post’, Paras said that he would quit from the post of party’s leader in Parliament the day he gets a berth in the Union Cabinet.

    The new LJP president resolved to fulfil the dream of his elder brother Ram Vilas Paswan in his new role. “I have been given a big responsibility in the party. I’ll try my best to fulfil the dream of my late elder brother by working for the disadvantaged people from all sections, including those who are educationally and economically backward among the upper castes,” Paras said.

    He ruled out any difference within the party after his revolt against Chirag. “Had there been differences, why should I have been elected unopposed? I have to take the party to the national level.”

    Interestingly, while Paras termed his nephew a ‘dictator’, the supporters of Chirag Paswan in Patna put up posters depicting the new LJP chief as ‘Kattpa’ and Chirag as ‘Bahubali’ with a one-liner message in Hindi: ‘Gaddar Chacha se sabdhan’ ( Beware of traitor uncle). 

  • Legal battle against rebel LJP leaders to go on, vows cornered Chirag Paswan

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Left to fend for himself by his party, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Wednesday said in Delhi that his legal fight against the rebel group will continue. Describing himself as ‘sher ka beta’ (son of a lion), he accused his uncle Pashupati Paras and five party MPs of hatching a conspiracy against him and the party when he was unwell.

    The lawmaker from Jamui in Bihar blamed the Nitish Kumar-led JD-U for engineering a split in his party, but avoided replying to questions on the BJP’s role. He rejected the decisions taken by the faction headed by his uncle, saying the party’s constitution did not allow Paras and others to take such steps.

    Chirag said he did not feel orphaned after the death of his father last year, but feels like one after a faction of the party led by his uncle removed him from the post of parliamentary leader. He said many in the LJP wanted to side with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar during the Assembly polls last year. These people were in favour of the “politics of comfort”, he alleged. “If I had to do the same, I would have had to bow before Nitish Kumar. I could not do that,” said Paswan.

    Referring to the five LJP MPs who sought his removal as LJP president, Chirag claimed the party constitution did not permit this action. A new party chief can be appointed in case of the incumbent’s death or resignation, he said.

    In his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Paswan wrote: “Since Article 26 of the LJP constitution empowers the Central Parliamentary Board of the party to decide who will be Leader of our Party in Lok Sabha, hence, the decision of announcing Pashupati Kumar Paras MP as leader of the party in the Lok Sabha is contrary to the provisions of the party constitution.”

  • Pashupati Kumar Paras visits Patna, challenges Chirag’s contention on LJP split

    By PTI
    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras on Wednesday challenged Chirag Paswan’s contention that the election of the former as the head of the parliamentary party was invalid since such a decision could be taken “only by the national president or the chairman of the parliamentary board”.

    On his first visit to Bihar since the dramatic turn of events that saw him leading the rebellion by all but one of six LJP MPs, Paras also asserted that Chirag had been “divested of” the post of national president on the previous day “in keeping with the party constitution”.

    “The party constitution stipulates that one person can hold only one post. Chirag, however, was the national president, the chairman of the parliamentary board and the leader in the House, all rolled into one. We have corrected that”, he said.

    He also said that while Suraj Bhan Singh, a former MP, has been made the “working president” and a full-time national chief of the LJP will be elected here on Thursday.

    Interestingly, on the day the rebel faction claims to have removed Chirag as national president, he had ordered “expulsion” on ground of “anti-party activities” of Paras and the four other MPs Chandan Kumar, Veena Devi, Prince Raj and Mehboob Ali Qaisar.

    Chirag Paswan, son of late LJP founding president Ram Vilas Paswan, who has been cornered in the very party he had been heading for nearly a year, had at a press conference in Delhi earlier in the day raised questions over the Lok Sabha Speaker giving recognition to the rebel faction which has chosen Paras as its leader.

    Shortly after Chirag was done with his media briefing, Paras, his fathers youngest brother and MP from Hajipur constituency which Paswan senior represented a number of times, landed at the Patna airport whre he received a rousing welcome by enthusiastic supporters.

    He drove straight to the partys state headquarters, barely 200 metres away, where posters depicting his image as of the five MPs supporting him adorned the walls, replacing those in which Chirag occupied the centrestage.

    Chirags protesters, who had on Tuesday barged into the premises and defaced and torn down posters of Paras and his supporters, came shouting slogans and waving black flags but they were thwarted by police personnel on duty.

    The disgruntled LJP workers squatted on the roadside in protest against the alleged hijacking of the party founded by their leader’s father.

    Interestingly, both factions of the LJP have so far pledged loyalty towards the BJP-led NDA though neither the saffron party nor the JD(U) of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar blamed by Chirag’s supporters for the crisis have spoken on the issue.

    State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal dismissed the turmoil within the LJP as an “internal matter” of the party.

    The stance has, however, been questioned by the opposition RJD which has started sending feelers to Chirag that having burnt his fingers in the NDA, he should contemplate crossing over to the Grand Alliance.

    Chirag, as national president of the LJP, is authorized to take any action including expulsion of party MPs.

    Paras can be acknowledged as the leader of the breakaway faction but not LJP.

    “It appears that both BJP and JD(U) have hatched a conspiracy to finish off its junior ally”, said Shakti Singh Yadav, RJD spokesman.

    RJD national vice president Shivanand Tiwary, an old associate of Ram Vilas Paswan, issued an impassioned statement likening Chirag to the root of a tree and Paras and his supporters as branches.

    He claimed that goings on in the LJP have led to “bhari aakrosh (intense anger)” among supporters of Ram Vilas Paswan and questioned the “belated sense of unease” shown by Paras towards the leadership of Chirag who was “elected as national president in the very life time of Ram Vilas bhai”.

    “Chirags rebellion against Nitish Kumar, which has suddenly made him a persona non grata, was not without the tacit approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who did not speak a word on LJPs stance at any of the dozen rallies he addressed during assembly polls.

    The young leader has been used and dumped”, Tiwary alleged.

    “He must, therefore, think of joining the Grand Alliance and work with Tejashwi Yadav. The two young leaders should come together to give a new direction to politics in Bihar”, the RJD leader added.

  • Chirag Paswan removed as LJP chief, says ‘party like mother, should not be betrayed’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Lok Janshakti Party faction headed by Chirag Paswan on Tuesday expelled the five MPs of the party who had rebelled against him, while the group led by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras removed him from the post of the party president.

    Both factions moved swiftly to take control of the party a day after Paras, the youngest brother of Paswan’s father and party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, was recognised by the Lok Sabha secretariat as the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in the House.

    While Chirag Paswan has been isolated in the parliamentary party as all other MPs beside him have backed Paras, sources said he continues to draw support from other leaders in the organisation.

    The matter is now likely to reach the Election Commission as both factions have claimed to represent the party.

    In his first reaction after Paras ousted him, Paswan likened the organization to a mother who should not be “betrayed”.

    In a tweet, he said he made efforts to keep the party founded by his father Ram Vilas Paswan and his family together but failed.

    पापा की बनाई इस पार्टी और अपने परिवार को साथ रखने के लिए किए मैंने प्रयास किया लेकिन असफल रहा।पार्टी माँ के समान है और माँ के साथ धोखा नहीं करना चाहिए।लोकतंत्र में जनता सर्वोपरि है। पार्टी में आस्था रखने वाले लोगों का मैं धन्यवाद देता हूँ। एक पुराना पत्र साझा करता हूँ। pic.twitter.com/pFwojQVzuo
    — युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) June 15, 2021

    People are supreme in a democracy, Paswan said and thanked those who have kept faith in the party.

    Paswan also shared a letter he had written to Paras, the youngest brother of his father, in March in which he had highlighted his uncle’s unhappiness over a number of issues, including his elevation as the party president.

  • LJP getting rid of Chirag Paswan works in favour of Nitish Kumar

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: With the BJP seemingly caught unawares, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appears to have cut his challenger Chirag Paswan to the size, after five MPs of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in a dramatic turn of events, elected Pashupati Paras, who’s known for his close ties with the JD (U), as its new leader on Monday in the nation`al capital. 

    At a time Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with senior ministers and the BJP chief JP Nadda, is busy reviewing performances of the ministries, the rebellion within the LJP is a shot in the arm for the Bihar chief minister, strengthening JD (U)’s stock and negotiating depth within the NDA for the Cabinet expansion at the Centre. 

    Paras, younger brother of the LJP founder and former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, is seen within political circles as being close to the Bihar chief minister. While the Bihar verdict last year had left JD (U) at the third spot, the NDA allies, Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and Hindustan Awami Mocrcha (HAM), have been keeping the chief minister edgy with their statements. Though the LJP makes no numerical changes in the Bihar Assembly equations, the five MPs block of the LJP expressing their full support to Kumar may make the chief minister fancy weaning away legislators from the opposition camps in the coming days. 

    READ HERE | Pashupati Kumar Paras elected LJP leader in Lok Sabha after rebel MPs seek ouster of Chirag Paswan

    After Chirag Paswan ran a bitter campaign against the Bihar chief minister during the 2020 Assembly elections, the BJP was forced to publicly denounce the LJP. The JD (U) had been assertively stating that LJP wasn’t part of the NDA even while BJP had been avoiding clarifying the position. 

    Unlike 2019, when the then BJP chief Amit Shah had offered one Cabinet berth to the JD (U), the LJP removing Chirag Paswan and expressing full support to Kumar may help him negotiate hard during the expansion of the Union Council of ministers. Also, the turn of events in the LJP is likely to change the social chemistry in Bihar, with the OBC-Muslim-Dalit combination boosting the confidence of the chief minister. With the Bihar unit of the BJP lacking a credible local face and the party banking on the Prime Minister’s appeal, political observers note that Kumar may gain the upper hand in his equations with the saffron outfit in the coming months.

  • Pashupati Kumar Paras elected LJP leader in Lok Sabha after rebel MPs seek ouster of Chirag Paswan

    Express News Service
    PATNA: In what appears to be a carefully planned move, five of the six MPs of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Monday united against LJP founder late Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan and elected Pashupati Kumar Paras as their leader. 

    Paras is the youngest brother of the late leader. 

    This is part of a series of moves in the LJP which have jolted party scion Chirag Paswan. 

    Chirag’s unceremonious removal comes after months of disgruntlement among other party leaders who felt the young politician’s functioning was autocratic. According to sources, the five MPs held a secret meeting on Saturday evening to give finishing touches to their plan. Later, they submitted a letter to Lok

    Chirag PaswanSabha speaker Om Birla demanding recognition for the new LJP faction with Paras as its national president. 

    “I have not executed a spilt in the party. Rather, I have saved the party so that it doesn’t deviate from the path shown by late Ram Vilas Paswan,” Paras told reporters. He added that 99% LJP leaders and workers wanted to contest the last Bihar Assembly election as an NDA ally but Chirag decided to go in the opposite direction. “As a result, the LJP suffered a lot politically, virtually reducing the party base in Bihar to zero. Now, we will be with the NDA in Bihar and the Centre,” Paras said.

    ALSO READ | Chirag Paswan has reaped what he had sown: JDU after fallout in LJP

    Expressing the new line of the party, Paras also lauded Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as ‘vikas purush’.Earlier in the day, Chirag tried to meet his uncle but was made to wait at the gate for over 15 minutes before he was let in. He spent nearly two hours there but could not meet Paras as he was not at home. 

  • Chirag Paswan has reaped what he had sown: JDU after fallout in LJP

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which bore the brunt of Chirag Paswan’s brinkmanship in the assembly polls last year, on Monday said the LJP president was reaping what he had sown.

    JD(U) national president RCP Singh reacted with a sense of vindication to the developments in the party founded by late Ram Vilas Paswan, whose son has been left cornered in a revolt led by the former’s younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras and supported by four other MPs, including nephew Prince Raj.

    “It is a well known adage that as you sow, so you reap. Chirag Paswan was heading a party which was with the NDA. Yet, he adopted a stance that damaged it in the assembly polls. This led to a sense of unease within his own party,” Singh told reporters here.

    Chirag Paswan had opened a front against Nitish Kumar in the elections, fielding nominees against all JD(U) candidates, many of them rebels from the BJP.

    He had claimed that he wanted to help the saffron party form its own government in the state where the people yearned for a change in leadership.

    Although the NDA managed to secure a majority and Kumar was backed for another term, the JD(U) ended up with a much smaller tally, conceding the upper hand to the BJP, which now has the lion’s share in the council of ministers in Bihar two of them being deputy CMs.

    ALSO READ: Pashupati Kumar Paras elected LJP leader in Lok Sabha after rebel MPs seek ouster of Chirag Paswan

    Asked about the praise showered on Nitish Kumar by Pashupati Kumar Paras, who represents the Hajipur seat from where Ram Vilas Paswan was elected for most of his career, Singh said “he was a minister in the state cabinet until he got elected to Parliament. We shared extremely cordial relations”.

    The JD(U) chief also remarked that Chirag was “too young” and had failed to keep his flock together in the LJP, which owed its current standing, in a large measure, to “efforts put in by Pashupati Kumar Paras and Ram Chandra Paswan (Prince Raj’s late father)”.

    Singh, however, parried queries as to whether the rebel LJP MPs would be welcome if they expressed the wish to join JD(U).

    “Many formalities are to be completed. The five MPs who have revolted need to be notified as an independent group by the Lok Sabha Speaker. They have already stated they will remain in the NDA.

    “In any case, in Bihar NDA, it is only the BJP and our party. Whichever party they join, they will be with us,” he said.

    He declined to comment on speculations about one or more rebel LJP MPs being inducted into the Union cabinet from JD(U) quota or getting accommodated in the state ministry, but reiterated his stand that all NDA allies ought to get a “respectable” share at the Centre.

    The developments in the LJP come barely three months after its lone MLA Raj Kumar Singh crossed over to the JD(U) upon being pulled up for voting in favour of Maheshwar Hazari, the NDA candidate for deputy speaker’s post.

    Singh had quit the LJP protesting the reproach from the leadership and asserting that he had supported the NDA candidate in line with the party’s earlier stance of backing Vijay Kumar Sinha, the alliance’s nominee, as Speaker.

    Notably, while Sinha belongs to the BJP, Hazari is from the JD(U).

  • Union Cabinet expansion: Chirag Paswan’s loss could be gain for JDU 

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Bihar’s political circle is abuzz as the ruling JD-U is likely to get two ministerial berths in the NDA union cabinet.

    National president of the Janata Dal (United) RCP Singh had said on Saturday that his party, being a constituent of the NDA, deserves to get a berth if the Centre decides to expand the Union cabinet. 

    “Whenever there is an expansion, JD-U must get a share in the cabinet,” Singh, who is considered to be next to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the party, said.

    An internal source from the NDA said that the cabinet expansion is likely to be held and the ruling BJP wants to accommodate some allies in the cabinet.

    It is believed that JD-U will be given two berths in view of the forthcoming election in UP, where Kurmi votes are crucial in the eastern parts.

    NDA leaders in Bihar speculate two ministries – Consumer Affair, Food and Public Distribution and the Commerce and Industry – which are now managed by Railway minister Piyush Goyal, can go to Nitish’s party.

    Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh and RCP Singh are likely to get the ministerial responsibilities.

    It was following the death of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan that the charge of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution went to Piyush Goyal.

    “If Chirag Paswan is not accommodated following the protest of Bihar’s ruling ally JD-U in the cabinet, it is likely that both these berths may go to JD-U”, a reliable source from NDA said.