Nitish Kumar met Chirag Paswan In Patna today.
Patna:
Chirag Paswan, back in BJP favour, met his longtime political rival, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today. The public meeting, which came after more than three years, was seen as an ice-breaker of sorts, projecting hopes for a better relationship as allies.
The meeting, inevitable after the BJP’s open-armed acceptance of Mr Paswan, was brought about by the Chief Minister’s close aide Sanjay Jha and two key leaders from the BJP — Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Health Minister Mangal Pandey — sources said.
The 30-minute meeting which took place at Mr Kumar’s official residence in Patna, was as much about optics as a smoother working relationship.
In the coming Lok Sabha election, the Lok Janshakti Party is contesting on 5 seats, way below JD(U)’s 16 seats.
The last four years have seen bitter discord between the two parties that started with Chirag Paswan contesting against Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal United in the 2020 assembly polls. Then came a split in his party in 2021, Mr Kumar’s break-up with the BJP and a return to the NDA fold in less than two years.
While Chirag Paswan is said to have been upset about alleged slights to his father by the Chief Minister, there is the other section that maintains that Mr Paswan’s father, former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, was grooming his son to step into Mr Kumar’s shoes in future.
Overnight, Chirag Paswan’s comments about Nitish Kumar became sharper. Till recently, Mr Kumar has publicly said Chirag Paswan is “very abusive towards me”.
Mr Paswan, meanwhile, contested solo in the 2020 assembly elections. The move, JD(U) maintained, ate into its votes and led to Mr Kumar slipping from his dominant position in the state alliance.
Following the death of Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP split amid a fight for his legacy.
Many held that it was orchestrated by Mr Kumar with the help of the BJP, which backed Chirag Paswan’s rebel uncle Pashupati Paras and even gave him a cabinet berth.
But during seat sharing for the coming Lok Sabha election, the BJP made its change of stance clear, cutting a deal with the Chirag Paswan faction of the LJP.
