New Delhi:

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) President, Chirag Paswan, addressed his status as a “nepotism kid” in a podcast with news agency ANI. As the son of Ram Vilas Paswan, the founder of the undivided LJP, Mr Paswan acknowledged his privilege but also highlighted the inherent challenges of being the son of an influential political leader. 

Mr Paswan, who serves as the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries in Modi 3.0, said, “I am a nepo kid, I can’t shy away from that fact. I am proud that I am the son of Ram Vilas Paswan. For me, it is a matter of pride.”

“If you do good work, people say that it is because of your parents. So the credit is not yours. But if you do bad, then you will hear abuses. So you are always on a double-edged sword,” he added. 

Despite his privileged position as the son of a party leader, Mr Paswan claimed that his rise to the party’s leadership was not automatic. He had to prove himself, especially after the split within the LJP orchestrated by his uncle, Pashupati Paras. 

Mr Paras, Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother, was the MP from Hajipur, a constituency with a strong Paswan vote bank. However, the last assembly polls indicated that the 6 per cent Paswan vote had consolidated behind Chirag Paswan, a factor the BJP considered when excluding Pashupati Paras from the seat-sharing arrangement for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Ram Vilas Paswan had secured the Hajipur seat eight times, with four consecutive victories starting in 1996. In the 2024 polls, Chirag Paswan won the seat by over 1.7 lakh votes.

“I lost everything – the party, the symbol, the organisation, and the house we stayed in for three decades. So everything was taken away from me. I had to start from scratch; I did not even know how to make a new party,” Chirag Paswan said.

Following the LJP split, Chirag Paswan contested the 2020 Bihar assembly elections independently, fielding candidates solely against the JD(U), despite remaining within the NDA fold. He led his party’s revival through the “Ashirwad Yatra” in Bihar, ahead of the 2024 general elections. A staunch supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Paswan’s party won all five seats it contested, making it the only NDA partner with a 100 per cent win rate. 
 

Nitish Kumar today appeared to be asking for votes for late Ram Vilas Paswan, the veteran leader from Bihar who died in 2020. However, the 73-year-old Chief Minister quickly course corrected and pitched for Chirag Paswan, the late leader’s son.  

“Bihar ka koi bhi kaam peeche nahi rahega, har tarah se hoga, isliye toh hum log kehne aaye hai ki bhai Ram Vilas ji ko dijiye, ek baari (No work of Bihar will be left behind, it will be done in every way. That is why we have come to say that please vote for Ram Vilas Paswan,” said the Chief Minister.

Swiftly changing course, the Chief Minister then appealed for votes for Chirag Paswan, a second-generation politician, fighting from Hajipur – a seat represented by Senior Paswan nine times.

“Ram Vilas ji ke putra ko aap dijiye, Chirag Paswan ji ko (Please vote for Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan),” said the Chief Minister in Hajipur. 

“Aur jab itna jyada dete hi the Ram Vilas Paswan ji ko, lekin aap inko dijiye abhi toh naujawan hain, ye aage badhega aur khoob kaam karega (You used to vote overwhelmingly for Ram Vilas Paswan ji, now vote for Chirag Paswan. He is young and will do a lot of work),” said the Chief Minister amid loud cheers and a round of applause. 

The acrimony between Mr Kumar and Junior Paswan, both back in the BJP-led NDA, appeared a thing of the past. 

Chirag Paswan, 41, has pledged eternal loyalty to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a dramatic Hanuman metaphor, he has said that the image of PM Modi is seared in his heart and will be visible to anyone if, like Lord Hanuman, he slashes open his chest.  

“I am terribly missing my father. This is the first time when I will have to file nomination papers with him not around. He was there to bless me both in 2014 and 2019,” Mr Paswan, who calls himself a “Yuva Bihari”, told reporters after filing his nomination on Thursday.

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has got five seats in Bihar as per the seat-sharing formula decided by the BJP-led coalition.

He was the national president of Lok Janshakti Party, founded by late Paswan, until it was split in 2021 by the latter’s younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras.

Pashupati Paras currently holds the Hajipur seat, which will vote in the fifth phase on May 20 in the ongoing marathon six week Lok Sabha polls.  

The 40 seats in Bihar are undergoing polls in all seven phases. In 2019, BJP-led NDA swept the state by winning 39 out of 40 seats, while Congress won just one seat. Lalu Yadav’s RJD, a formidable force in the state, failed to open its account.

The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), the opposition coalition in Bihar, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, and Left parties, have announced that the RJD, its largest constituent, will contest 26 seats.

As part of the NDA, BJP and JD(U) will contest on 17 and 16 seats, respectively. Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha will contest one seat each.

The votes will be counted on June 4.

Patna:

Former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Friday squarely blamed nephew Chirag Paswan for his non-participation in the poll campaign in Hajipur, the seat he currently represents but is now being contested by the latter.

Mr Paras also said Chirag, the son of late Ram Vilas Paswan, has “never bothered to come and seek blessings” from his uncle.

“I have never been invited”, was the curt reply of Paras, when he was asked about his absence in Hajipur from where Chirag has filed his nomination.

The seat had earlier been represented by Ram Vilas Paswan nine times.

Chirag’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has got five seats in Bihar as per the seat-sharing formula decided by the BJP-led coalition.

The formula has left Paras high and dry and he has reacted by resigning from the Union cabinet but chosen to remain with the BJP-led NDA.

“I stay just a few hundred metres away from the Patna airport where Chirag goes almost every day to catch his helicopter. He has never bothered to come and seek my blessings even though I am older than him. My party leaders have been campaigning for NDA candidates in Bihar”, said Paras who leads the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP).

Chirag was the national president of Lok Janshakti Party, founded by Ram Vilas Paswan until it was split in 2021.

Mr Paras had claimed that the split was a consequence of the “Chirag model”, which had caused the NDA partner JD(U)’s tally to crash in the assembly polls held the year before.

Chirag had earlier told PTI that he was “not sure whether even time will be able to heal the wounds” inflicted upon him by his uncle, while profusely thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “always standing” by him to the extent it was possible.

Commenting on PM Modi’s roadshow in Patna on May 12, Paras said, “It will be a grand roadshow by the PM in Patna. The NDA will win 400 plus seats in the country and all 40 seats in Bihar”. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Patna:

The President of the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas, Chirag Paswan, had a narrow escape on Thursday after one of the wheels of his helicopter sunk into the ground upon landing at Ujiarpur in Bihar’s Samastipur district.

The pilot efficiently controlled the chopper to avert a major accident.

Chirag Paswan reached there by helicopter to address an election meeting in support of BJP candidate and Union Minister Nityanand Rai, who’s eyeing a hat-trick from the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency.

The helipad was built a few days ago, but due to rain, the soil was wet.

Polling in Ujiarpur will be held in the fourth phase on May 13.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Patna:

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Saturday attributed a relatively low voter turnout in Bihar in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls to “no challenge faced by the NDA” in the state.

Mr Paswan, whose party is fighting five out of the state’s 40 seats, as part of the coalition led by the BJP, claimed that the INDIA bloc’s performance will be “worse” than in 2019, when it could win only one seat in Bihar.

“The voter turnout in Bihar is low because the opposition here is in a state of atrophy. Although the NDA is going to do well everywhere, at least it has some competition in, say, West Bengal, which is a reason why voters there turned up in large numbers yesterday,” he told reporters.

The four seats in Bihar where voting took place included Jamui, represented by Paswan twice on the trot. However, he has now shifted base to his late father Ram Vilas Paswan’s pocket borough Hajipur, and fielded Arun Bharti, his sister’s husband from Jamui.

Bihar recorded a 48.23 per cent turnout in the four seats — Jamui, Nawada, Gaya, and Aurangabad – that went to polls in the first phase on Friday.

Mr Paswan also raked up the issue of a video that had recently gone viral in which people can be heard using abusive language at a rally purportedly addressed by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

“The incident smacks of the RJD’s anti-Dalit mindset. I am shocked to hear that Tejashwi, whom I have always treated as a younger brother, has tried to wash his hands of the incident. I would have objected strongly if someone abused his family in my presence,” said Mr Paswan, who is known to have excellent relations with Mr Yadav and his father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president.

Chiding Mr Yadav for “arrogance” over leading the single-largest party in Bihar, Paswan said the RJD leader ought to remind the role “we had played” in the assembly polls.

The allusion was to the drubbing of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), in 2020, which has been blamed on the revolt of the LJP, then headed by Paswan.

He, however, downplayed the JD(U) chief’s absence at most rallies held by allies, claiming “all NDA constituents in Bihar have been advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to run an extensive campaign, which can be possible only if different leaders attend different public meetings”.

He also claimed that the NDA was increasingly getting popular among Muslims, despite the coalition being led by the BJP.

“People feel governments run by the RJD and its ally Congress have been a failure in the state as well as the Centre. Besides, these parties’ failure to give adequate representation to Muslims, despite seeking their votes, stands exposed,” said Mr Paswan.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Patna:

After a purported video showed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) workers hurling abuses at Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan’s mother Veena Paswan during an election rally, the LJP leader wrote to former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav seeking immediate action in the matter.

In his letter, Mr Paswan said that the particular action has refreshed the memories of Jungle Raj as during that time it was difficult for mothers and daughters to leave their homes.

“I never understood any difference between Rabri Devi ji and my mother. In such a situation, I did not expect this from you. I agree that political parties may have different views, and there may be differences of opinions but it is not appropriate to have animosity. Such foul language about one’s mother is beyond imagination for me,” he said.

“This action by your party’s supporters has refreshed the memories of Jungle Raj of the 90s. In those times, it was difficult for mothers and daughters to leave their homes. Women were humiliated and tortured. Today after this incident, you cannot even imagine how painful it is for me as a son to hear such words about my mother. I want you to give a strong message to your party workers and supporters so that in the future such language cannot be used not only for me but for any mother and sister living in Bihar,” the LJP chief added.

“I hope that you will take immediate action against those who insulted my mother,” Chirag Paswan said in the letter to Tejashwi Yadav.

Condemning the incident, RJD leader Misa Bharti questioned Chirag Paswan for his silence when Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary made a derogatory remark against Lalu Prasad Yadav.

“It is condemnable, derogatory language should not be used against women belonging to any party but I want to ask Chirag Paswan why was he quiet when Samrat Choudhary made such a derogatory remark against my sister and father?” she said.

Bihar BJP women’s delegation had filed a complaint to the Election Commission in connection with the incident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Patna:

In an upheaval within the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), 22 party leaders have tendered their resignations simultaneously while expressing anger at not getting tickets for the Lok Sabha elections.

Among the notable figures who stepped down include former minister Renu Kushwaha, former MLA and national general secretary of LJP, Satish Kumar, state organisation minister Ravindra Singh, Ajay Kushwaha, Sanjay Singh and State General Secretary Rajesh Dangi.

The resignation wave appears to stem from grievances within the party ranks, with allegations surfacing about the distribution of tickets in exchange for money.

On her resignation from the party, former MP Renu Kushwaha said, “Ticket should be given to the party workers instead of people the from outside. Tickets were given to the outsiders which means that able people are not there in your party. Are we the labour class people in your party who will work for you, make you a leader? Our devotion was questioned when an outsider was given a ticket. We are not here to serve as labourers for the party.”

Miffed over not getting the ticket, former MLA and national general secretary of LJP Satish Kumar asserted that the rebel LJP leaders will now support the INDIA bloc.

“When such important elections are there in the country, the LJP Supremo has given tickets to such people that the party workers are stunned. The people who used to raise slogans ‘Hail Chirag Paswan’, day and night and hoped for a ‘new Bihar’ have been betrayed, their aspirations were crushed. Now, to save the country, INDI alliance has to be supported. Now we will support the INDI alliance,”

The party’s Organisation Secretary Ravindra Singh claimed that Chirag Paswan “sold the tickets”. “Chirag Paswan has played an emotional game with the people of Bihar. When he got five seats due to our hard work, he sold all those tickets. People of Bihar will give him an answer,” he said.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is contesting five out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar – Vaishali, Hajipur, Samastipur, Khagaria and Jamui.

Bihar will see polling in seven phases. The first phase will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, the third on May 7, fourth on May 13, fifth on May 20, sixth on May 25, and seventh on June 1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Saturday made it clear that he will “continue to support the NDA” in the Lok Sabha polls but fell short of calling a truce with nephew Chirag Paswan.

Pashupati Paras, who has been avoiding the press ever since he came back to Bihar after giving up his ministerial berth in disgust, made a statement on the social media site X.

Tagging Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and the party’s Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde, Paras wrote in Hindi, “Our Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party is a part of NDA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is our leader.” Paras, whose Hajipur Lok Sabha seat is being contested by Chirag Paswan, as the NDA candidate, said Modi’s “decision is supreme for us. Our full support will be there to ensure that the NDA crosses the 400-mark and wins all 40 seats in Bihar”.

Pashupati Paras had quit the Union cabinet after the NDA gave five seats to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) while leaving him high and dry.

His party came into being after he split, in 2021, Lok Janshakti Party founded by late brother and Chirag Paswan’s father Ram Vilas Paswan.

Although Pashupati Paras had then succeeded in getting the support of all LJP MPs, except Chirag Paswan, they have now deserted him, trying to curry favour with his nephew or exploring prospects in the BJP.

Speculations had been rife that Paras, who had been hopeful that the BJP would back him for a second consecutive term in Hajipur, might enter the fray as a rebel candidate and get support from the INDIA bloc.

However, on Friday the RJD, the largest opposition party in Bihar, made it clear that it would field its own candidate from the reserved seat which late Paswan had represented several times and his son is contesting to drive home the point that he, and not Paras, was the true heir to his father’s legacy.

The BJP has been of the view that the nephew and the uncle should “come together”, though Chirag Paswan has maintained that the ball was in the court of Paras, who was “the one to cause a split in the family and the party”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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.

New Delhi:

The BJP announcement of seat sharing in Bihar has publicly cut out Pashupati Paras — the estranged uncle of Chirag Paswan who controls a faction of the Lok Janshakti Party — leaving him completely isolated. The 71-year-old, who three years ago appeared to hold all the cards, splitting the LJP and being rewarded with a berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, is now fighting for political survival.

Sources said Mr Paras will step down from the Union cabinet and his MLAs have touched base with the INDIA alliance, which a week ago, was jockeying for an alliance with Chirag Paswan. Mr Paras had warned about this last week, saying he is “free to go anywhere”.

Mr Paswan, who once described himself as devoted as “Hanuman” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has stuck to the NDA, getting only five seats of the six he aspired for. The list, however, contains Hajipur, the seat that once belonged to his late father, Ram Vilas Paswan.   

Pashupati Paras, the brother of Ram Vilas Paswan, is the sitting MP from Hajipur. If he tries to hold onto the seat, he would be up against his nephew this time. Such a battle promises to be among the most-watched.

The last assembly polls in the state made it clear that the 6 per cent Paswan vote has rallied to Chirag Paswan — a situation that the BJP had factored in while dropping Pashupati Paras from the seat sharing equation.

Ram Vilas Paswan had won from Hajipur eight times, four of them being consecutive victories staring 1996.

The rest of Chirag Paswan’s list has Samastipur, Jamui, Vaishali and Khagaria — among the six seats the undivided LJP won in 2019.

The only fly in the NDA ointment could be Chirag Paswan’s strained relation with Nitish Kumar. The Chief Minister has always blamed the poor performance of his party in the 2020 assembly election to the Paswan factor.

After Pashupati Paras had split the LJP — with alleged concurrence of the BJP — Chirag Paswan had contested solo in the assembly election and split the pro-NDA votes. It had left the JD(U) compromised.

Ending up with far fewer seats than the BJP, the JD(U) had to cede the big brother position to it.

Many JD(U) leaders had privately called it a BJP move to clip Nitish Kumar’s wings and gain the upper hand in Bihar.

Since the 2020 election, Mr Kumar and Chirag Paswan have not patched up.