News Analysis India

Tag: Lok Janshakti Party

  • Chirag Paswan terms as ‘hypothetical’ speculations of BJP joining hands with Nitish

    Amid political uncertainty in Bihar, former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan on Friday disclosed that he was “in constant touch with the top BJP leadership” but termed as “hypothetical” the question whether Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would be acceptable to him as a new NDA partner. Paswan, who had come to the Bihar capital on Thursday evening, spoke to journalists at the airport, saying he has “cancelled” engagements in the state to hold deliberations over the “crucial next few days” in Delhi.

    “I have been in constant touch with the top BJP leadership. I spoke to them before coming here last evening when I held a meeting of party workers. I am going back to Delhi. I have cancelled my trip to late Karpoori Thakur’s village in Samastipur and to Sitamarhi, which I had been wanting to visit after having paid obeisance at Ayodhya”, he said.

    Paswan, who now heads Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), said his party is a “committed NDA ally in Bihar”. “Therefore, we are keeping a watch on the situation in the state where the next two or three days may be crucial. The BJP, which is the largest constituent of the alliance, is keeping me in the loop. We will be holding more talks in Delhi,” he said.

    The young Jamui MP, who is known to have no love lost for Nitish Kumar and whose rebellion during the 2020 assembly polls has been blamed by the ruling JD(U) for its debacle, was also asked whether he would now be comfortable with the Bihar chief minister as an alliance partner.

    “These are hypothetical questions which I would not like to answer. There can be no end to such speculations”, said Paswan. He also scoffed at reports in a section of the media speculating that if Kumar made a return to the NDA, Paswan could switch sides and seek an alliance with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the current Deputy CM. “These are baseless reports which erode the credibility of the fourth estate,” fumed Paswan.

    Paswan’s comments came amidst a strong buzz that Kumar, a key figure in the opposition bloc INDIA, was now done with the anti-BJP coalition and exploring possibilities with his old ally which he had dumped less than two years ago.

    However, neither Kumar’s JD(U) nor the BJP has dropped a clear hint in this direction.

    JD(U)’s political advisor and spokesperson K C Tyagi has been asserting that his party saw itself as “the architect of INDIA” and wanted to remain a part of the coalition though developments in West Bengal and Punjab were a cause for concern.

    State BJP president Samrat Choudhary, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the party’s principal strategist, in Delhi on Thursday, asserted that the talks centred around Lok Sabha polls.

    “Our top leaders like Amit Shah and national president J P Nadda have said, in public, that the doors of BJP were closed. As a party worker, I abide by the stand. Nitish Kumar, to us, is a politician who changes his allies like clothes”, said Choudhary.

  • Chirag Paswan urges PM to solve medical students’ problems after their return from Ukraine

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s chief and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to solve the problems of those students who returned to the country from war-torn Ukraine last year. The Centre had launched Operation Ganga to evacuate students who got stranded in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia.

    Providing details of problems being faced by the medical students of Bihar and other parts of the country after they were evacuated from Ukraine, Chirag requested Modi to sort out their problems at the earliest. He said nearly 1050 medical students from different parts of Bihar studying in Ukraine were brought back to their home districts safely in the middle of the war under Operation Ganga. He said that these students were facing serious difficulties now and were moving from pillar to post and also passing through mental agony due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    The next academic session is likely to start in September, he pointed out. “You got them out of the middle of the war but now they need your help to save their career. All the students (Batch September-2021 and Batch February-2022) are waiting daily for the war to stop,” Chirag wrote to the PM in his letter.

    These medical students want that the Centre should provide them with a one-time transfer so that they can enrol themselves in the medical institute of any other foreign country so that all their problems can be solved. All these students are demanding transfer because it is not possible for them to return to Ukraine in the atmosphere of war and also they cannot do their medical studies online for long. Chirag said that a delegation of students who had returned from Ukraine had met him personally and informed him that even during the Crimea-Russia war in 2014, Indian students were granted transfer facilities so that they could study in other countries.

    He informed that students during the meeting also told him that the new session of these students was going to start in September this year and so the Centre should take a concrete step on the matter by the end of August by understanding their dilemmas and problems. LJP (Ram Vilas) leader said that many students had taken loans and enrolled in Ukraine for their medical studies so that by studying there they could bring laurels to themselves and their country in the field of medicine. He said that students could be saved from going back to Ukraine if the Centre initiated steps for providing transfer facilities to students.

    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s chief and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to solve the problems of those students who returned to the country from war-torn Ukraine last year. The Centre had launched Operation Ganga to evacuate students who got stranded in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia.

    Providing details of problems being faced by the medical students of Bihar and other parts of the country after they were evacuated from Ukraine, Chirag requested Modi to sort out their problems at the earliest. He said nearly 1050 medical students from different parts of Bihar studying in Ukraine were brought back to their home districts safely in the middle of the war under Operation Ganga. He said that these students were facing serious difficulties now and were moving from pillar to post and also passing through mental agony due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    The next academic session is likely to start in September, he pointed out. “You got them out of the middle of the war but now they need your help to save their career. All the students (Batch September-2021 and Batch February-2022) are waiting daily for the war to stop,” Chirag wrote to the PM in his letter.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    These medical students want that the Centre should provide them with a one-time transfer so that they can enrol themselves in the medical institute of any other foreign country so that all their problems can be solved. All these students are demanding transfer because it is not possible for them to return to Ukraine in the atmosphere of war and also they cannot do their medical studies online for long. Chirag said that a delegation of students who had returned from Ukraine had met him personally and informed him that even during the Crimea-Russia war in 2014, Indian students were granted transfer facilities so that they could study in other countries.

    He informed that students during the meeting also told him that the new session of these students was going to start in September this year and so the Centre should take a concrete step on the matter by the end of August by understanding their dilemmas and problems. LJP (Ram Vilas) leader said that many students had taken loans and enrolled in Ukraine for their medical studies so that by studying there they could bring laurels to themselves and their country in the field of medicine. He said that students could be saved from going back to Ukraine if the Centre initiated steps for providing transfer facilities to students.

  • ‘I practise politics of positivity’: Chirag hits back at JDU after being blamed for its decline

    By PTI

    PATNA: Former Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan on Sunday hit back at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which has accused him for its own debacle in the 2020 assembly polls.

    Paswan came out with a flurry of tweets in response to allegation of “Chirag model at work” by JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan at a press conference here.

    “I practise politics of positivity and do not represent any model. Those who had engineered infights are now themselves faced with internal strife. They would do well not look for causes out on the streets,” Paswan tweeted.

    The allusion was to the rebellion by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, which led to a split in the LJP founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, and turmoil in the JD(U) following former national president RCP Singh’s resignation.

    He also took a veiled dig at Kumar over speculations of yet another political volte-face, drawing an analogy from the Mahabharata.

    “Like Kansa, he is trying to kill every child of Devaki. First, it was my turn. Now it is of RCP. But he is not aware of the incarnation of Krishna, his political slayer. Even jumping ship will be of no help this time,” Paswan added in a cryptic tweet.

    PATNA: Former Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan on Sunday hit back at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which has accused him for its own debacle in the 2020 assembly polls.

    Paswan came out with a flurry of tweets in response to allegation of “Chirag model at work” by JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan at a press conference here.

    “I practise politics of positivity and do not represent any model. Those who had engineered infights are now themselves faced with internal strife. They would do well not look for causes out on the streets,” Paswan tweeted.

    The allusion was to the rebellion by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, which led to a split in the LJP founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, and turmoil in the JD(U) following former national president RCP Singh’s resignation.

    He also took a veiled dig at Kumar over speculations of yet another political volte-face, drawing an analogy from the Mahabharata.

    “Like Kansa, he is trying to kill every child of Devaki. First, it was my turn. Now it is of RCP. But he is not aware of the incarnation of Krishna, his political slayer. Even jumping ship will be of no help this time,” Paswan added in a cryptic tweet.

  • Chirag in NDA meet on presidential poll preparation, says his presence due to support to Murmu

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan on Sunday attended a meeting of the BJP-led NDA on the presidential poll preparation, a significant development as he had kept away from the ruling alliance’s gatherings after walking out of the coalition during the 2020 Bihar assembly polls.

    Paswan, however, told PTI that attending the meeting did not mean he was again a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

    The second-term Lok Sabha MP walked into the venue of the meeting along with several other MPs, mostly from the BJP, where a demonstration on the voting for the presidential poll was given on the eve of the election.

    The Jamui MP, however, said later that his presence at the meeting was because of his support to the ruling alliance’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

    She also joined the MPs later.

    Paswan said he was invited to attend the meeting.

    “It does not mean that I am part of the NDA,” he told PTI.

    Paswan had quit the NDA in Bihar due to his opposition to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the biggest alliance member after the BJP.

    He had then claimed that he remained a BJP ally at the national level and had quit the grouping in Bihar for state-specific reasons.

    However, the JD(U)’s stiff resistance ensured that he did not attend NDA meetings.

    The BJP’s invitation to him to attend a ruling alliance’s meeting ahead of Parliament’s budget session had invited a sharp reaction from Kumar’s party, leading to Paswan skipping it.

    JD(U) MPs, including its president Lalan Singh, also attended the meeting held in the Parliament complex on Sunday.

    Paswan’s relations with the BJP had also soured after his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras split the Lok Janshakti Party and was joined by all other party MPs.

    The Paras faction was recognised as the real LJP in Lok Sabha, and he was sworn in as a minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

    Chirag Paswan had also taken swipes at the BJP following his eviction from a government bungalow, first allotted to his father and stalwart Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan.

    NEW DELHI: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan on Sunday attended a meeting of the BJP-led NDA on the presidential poll preparation, a significant development as he had kept away from the ruling alliance’s gatherings after walking out of the coalition during the 2020 Bihar assembly polls.

    Paswan, however, told PTI that attending the meeting did not mean he was again a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

    The second-term Lok Sabha MP walked into the venue of the meeting along with several other MPs, mostly from the BJP, where a demonstration on the voting for the presidential poll was given on the eve of the election.

    The Jamui MP, however, said later that his presence at the meeting was because of his support to the ruling alliance’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

    She also joined the MPs later.

    Paswan said he was invited to attend the meeting.

    “It does not mean that I am part of the NDA,” he told PTI.

    Paswan had quit the NDA in Bihar due to his opposition to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the biggest alliance member after the BJP.

    He had then claimed that he remained a BJP ally at the national level and had quit the grouping in Bihar for state-specific reasons.

    However, the JD(U)’s stiff resistance ensured that he did not attend NDA meetings.

    The BJP’s invitation to him to attend a ruling alliance’s meeting ahead of Parliament’s budget session had invited a sharp reaction from Kumar’s party, leading to Paswan skipping it.

    JD(U) MPs, including its president Lalan Singh, also attended the meeting held in the Parliament complex on Sunday.

    Paswan’s relations with the BJP had also soured after his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras split the Lok Janshakti Party and was joined by all other party MPs.

    The Paras faction was recognised as the real LJP in Lok Sabha, and he was sworn in as a minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

    Chirag Paswan had also taken swipes at the BJP following his eviction from a government bungalow, first allotted to his father and stalwart Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan.

  • ‘BJP, JDU in search of their own Eknath Shinde to pull each other down’: Chirag Paswan’s jibe at NDA

    By PTI

    PATNA: The JD(U) and its ally BJP were in search of “their own Eknath Shinde”, who could pull the rug from under the feet of his own party to benefit the rival, former Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan has alleged.

    Paswan accused the two parties of remaining in an alliance “just for the sake of power”, and charged the BJP with capitulating before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on ideological issues.

    Addressing a press conference here, he also claimed that Kumar was trying to cut BJP to size and had “played a role” in the defection of four AIMIM MLAs to the RJD to achieve this end.

    “It is well known that AIMIM MLAs had been in touch with the JD(U) since they did not have much of a future in that party which has little presence in Bihar.

    But, instead of joining the CM’s party, they joined the RJD.

    Kumar was behind this development since now the RJD has snatched the status of the single largest party from the BJP,” the young Jamui MP claimed on Sunday.

    “Both parties are together just for the sake of power. Both are trying to pull the ally down, looking for an Eknath Shinde who could deliver,” Paswan said in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the recent political developments in Maharashtra.

    Cornered in the party founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, following a rebellion by uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras which led to the LJP’s disintegration, Paswan also heaped scorn on the BJP for “prostration” before Kumar who has been able to have his way on issues ranging from NRC to caste census.

    Notably, the LJP had been an NDA partner until the 2020 assembly polls when Paswan launched a rebellion against Kumar and decided to go solo.

    A section of JD(U) leaders has been of the view that Paswan had tacit approval of the BJP, which returned with a tally far better than that of the chief minister’s party.

    Paswan, left in the lurch by BJP that has accommodated Paras in the Union cabinet, now seems to have given up his past adulation for the saffron party as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Claiming that he had been egged on by his father, who was then on death bed, to go it alone, Paswan however made it clear that he will be a part of “one alliance or the other, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls or mid-term assembly elections, whichever took place earlier”.

    Since his exit from NDA, there have been many attempts by the RJD to woo Paswan who seems to be weighing his options.

    Paswan also disclosed that a statue of his late father will be unveiled on the latter’s birth anniversary on July 5 at Hajipur, the Lok Sabha constituency which had become synonymous with Ram Vilas Paswan.

    Asked whether Paras has been invited to the function, he replied, “Of course. He is a father figure and the local MP. After my father’s death, he has shown scant respect for my mother and me. But, I cannot think of paying him in the same coin”.

  • Evicted from late father’s Delhi house, Chirag Paswan sniffs `conspiracy’

    By PTI

    PATNA: Driven out of the ministerial bungalow in the national capital which had become synonymous with his late father, Chirag Paswan on Saturday played the victim card, sniffing out a conspiracy angle.

    Paswan alleged that a day prior to his unceremonious eviction earlier this week, he was assured by “a top Union minister” that he could stay on, and wondered whether Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had a role to play in his “humiliation”.

    Paswan also attacked his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who earned a cabinet berth after splitting the Lok Janshakti Party, for remaining “a mute spectator to the insult to the memory” of late Ram Vilas Paswan.

    “I have been rendered homeless. My father was an honest man and hence never cared to build a house in Delhi despite a political career spanning across five decades”, he said.

    “I had made up my mind to vacate 12, Janpath. I am intrigued that on the night prior to the mayhem by security forces, I was summoned by a top minister in the Union cabinet who told me I could stay on and even dialed up a colleague to say let’s not be harsh on Chirag. He is the future of Bihar”, claimed Paswan.

    “It will suffice to say right now that the minister was not among the less fancied ones. He is among the top five and is understood to have a say in decision making. I will reveal his name if the situation demands”, alleged the Jamui MP, who headed the party founded by his father until the rebellion by his uncle.

    Training his guns at Nitish Kumar whom he has repeatedly accused of having been disrespectful towards his father, Paswan wondered whether the “pressure” on the NDA government by the JD(U) leader was “so great as to necessitate our humiliating eviction”.

    “Ram Vilas Paswan was the second Ambedkar. But while carrying out the eviction drive, the men in uniform stepped on his bed with boots on, trampled on his pictures, misbehaved with our helpers”, alleged Paswan.

    “The worst part is, my uncle who owes his political standing to the late leader, remained a mute spectator and preferred to look the other way rather than risk his own position by revolting.

    Now, I am left with the people of Bihar by way of a family”, said Paswan who famously called himself the “Hanuman” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but seems to have been deemed too hot to handle.

  • Gains for BJP in poll-bound Manipur as lone LJP member set to join party

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The BJP, which heads the ruling coalition in Manipur, is set to get another shot in the arm as the lone Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MLA has decided to wear saffron.

    Karam Shyam, the only LJP legislator in the whole of Northeast, announced that he would join the BJP on November 11. The LJP is a constituent of Manipur’s BJP-led ruling coalition.

    After the results of the 2017 elections were out, he had wasted no time in pledging his support to the BJP when it was cobbling up numbers to form the government.

    The Langthabal MLA expressed happiness over the Narendra Modi government’s various development initiatives and said he would work towards strengthening the BJP.

    His announcement that he is BJP-bound came on a day when two Congress MLAs joined the saffron party in Delhi.

    MLAs RK Imo and Yamthong Haokip joined the party in the presence of BJP leaders Sarbananda Sonowal and Sambit Patra among others on Monday.

    The Assembly elections in Manipur are expected in February next year. Apart from LJP and BJP, the other constituents of the government are Naga People’s Front and the National People’s Party.

    Over the past four and half years, a number of Congress MLAs had ditched the party to be with the BJP. MLAs of opposition parties switching their loyalty to the ruling party has been a trend in the Northeast in recent years.

    Observers say the upcoming polls will be keenly contested by the BJP and the Congress. However, given the steady desertions of Congress MLAs and the party’s depleting popularity in the region and the country, the BJP is likely to have an edge.

  • 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.

  • 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.