Patna:

Chirag Paswan, Union Minister and leader of the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas, on Friday, celebrated a symbolic victory in the ongoing family and political feud by reclaiming the party’s old office.

The party office was previously occupied by the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) led by Chirag Paswan’s uncle, Pashupati Kumar Paras.

The event took place on the auspicious occasion of Kartik Purnima, where Chirag Paswan performed a puja at the bungalow, marking a new beginning under his leadership.

Chirag Paswan, accompanied by his brother-in-law and Jamui MP Arun Bharti, visited the bungalow to inspect it and perform rituals.

The Building Construction Department had facilitated this reclamation by directing Pashupati Paras to vacate the premises by November 13, though the latter complied earlier, vacating it on November 11.

Chirag emphasised the emotional significance of the office, stating, “Our father’s memories are associated with this office. I have got it back again. It is true that my uncle’s memories are also associated with this bungalow, with whom I stayed for a long time. But circumstances change, and these circumstances have been created by them. Today we are different.”

Chirag Paswan, however, maintained a pragmatic view over the issue, saying, “The party office does not belong to anyone. Today we have it, tomorrow someone else will have it. All this goes according to the situation.”

This office, tied to the legacy of the former Union Minister late Ram Vilas Paswan, symbolises the struggle for control over the Lok Janshakti Party’s assets and heritage following his death.

The family feud saw the party split into two factions — one led by Chirag Paswan and the other by his uncle, Pashupati Kumar Paras.

Reclaiming the office for Chirag Paswan is a crucial step in reinforcing his authority as the heir to Ram Vilas Paswan’s political legacy.

The office serves as a tangible representation of the party’s origins and history, now restored to the faction led by Chirag Paswan.

This development highlights the ongoing efforts by Chirag Paswan to solidify his position within the party and among his supporters, while also showcasing the personal and political complexities that have defined the Paswan family’s internal dynamics.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Pashupati Paras, Chirag Paswan’s rebel uncle who split his party and had him in a tight corner once, has been evicted from the building that had been his home for around 40 years. The white building close to the Patna airport was registered as the office of the Lok Janshakti Party by Mr Paras’s brother and Chirag Paswan’s father, late Ramvilas Paswan, as the party office. Unofficially it was also the home of Mr Paras, who lived there with his family. 

But today, after much controversy, the Bihar government finally got the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party office vacated today. Mr Paras has shifted to his MLA Colony House.

The government’s building construction department had given a notice to Mr Paras, asking him to vacate the office. He was given time till November 13, but the office was vacated before the deadline.

Mr Paras, a former Union Minister, had pleaded before all the top BJP leaders in Delhi to save this house and office. But before Chirag Paswan’s stubbornness, no one prevailed, party sources said on strict condition of anonymity.

Chirag Paswan had been humiliated once after the split in the party.

Two years ago, he was evicted from the bungalow in Delhi that had almost become his father’s permanent home. Ramvilas Paswan was neighbour of Sonia Gandhi — his 12 Janpath Road residence was practically next door to 10 Janpath, one of the best-known addresses in Delhi.

But in March 2022, Chirag Paswan was evicted. Images from the spot showed the Paswan family’s belongings heaped on the road along with photos of Ram Vilas Paswan. “They threw my father’s photo… We had such cherished photos. They walked on the photos with slippers on…they wore slippers all over the beds,” Chirag Paswan said.

Later, he had blamed Pashupati Paras, who shortly before had split the Lok Janshakti Party and was rewarded with a cabinet berth. 
Paswan Junior had accused him of looking the other way during the alleged mayhem by security forces during the eviction.

This time, the shoe was on the other foot. After Mr Paras’ faction of LJP was summarily dropped by the BJP during the seat sharing, and his own faction’s laudable performance, Chirag Paswan was not ready to relent.

Pashupati Paras had got the bungalow four decades ago during his tenure as an MLA. But later, after he lost an election, the house was allotted in the name of the Lok Janshakti Party.

Though Ramvilas Paswan had a separate home, where he lived with his wife and son, he was mostly to be found at the party office. It was also the first stop when the former Union minister flew home from Delhi.  

Patna:

Union minister Chirag Paswan made it clear today that he was opposed to “reservation within reservation” as his ally BJP is implementing in Haryana. In its first meeting this week, the cabinet of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has decided to divide the quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and give a chunk of it to sub-groups that have lesser representation in employment and education.

“The Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas Paswan) has made it clear that we do not support this. I think we should be talking of communities, not castes,” Chirag Paswan told reporters today.

“Especially when you talk of Scheduled castes, the basis of which was untouchability, some customs even today perpetuate it… Under such circumstances if such sub-classifications are made, somewhere or the other, it would create problems and perpetuate such divisions,” Mr Paswan added.

केंद्रीय मंत्री चिराग़ पासवान ने आज पटना में अनुसूचित जाति के आरक्षण में वर्गीकरण का विरोध करते हुए कहा कि इससे आने वाले समय में और असमानता बढ़ेगा ⁦@ndtv⁩ ⁦@ndtvindia⁩ pic.twitter.com/YCfQrbWK53

— manish (@manishndtv) October 21, 2024

Currently, there is a 15 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribes.

In 2004, a five-judge Constitution bench had barred preferential treatment to sub-castes within the communities, maintaining that Scheduled Castes and Tribes form homogeneous groups.

But on August 1, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court allowed sub-classification within reserved category groups for affirmative action.

The Haryana government said it would now be able to allocate specific quotas within the 22.5 per cent reservation to sub-groups within SCs and STs that have lesser representation in employment and education.

In August, ahead of the assembly election, the Haryana Scheduled Castes commission had recommended subclassifying the Dalit communities into two categories – deprived scheduled castes and other scheduled castes. The move had helped the BJP get a chunk of SC vote, increasing its score in the seats dominated by the community from five to 17.

It was a huge help for the BJP, which went on to win a record third consecutive term in Haryana.

Patna:

Union minister Chirag Paswan has caused a flutter by stating he would choose to give up his ministerial berth instead of a compromise on his principles, in keeping with the precedent set by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.

Mr Paswan, who heads Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), made the remark at a function of the party’s SC/ST cell here on Monday evening, even as he maintained that he “will be in the NDA till Narendra Modi is my Prime Minister”.

Responding to questions from journalists about his cryptic remark in his speech, “I will not hesitate to renounce my ministerial berth as my father did”, the young leader claimed he was speaking about the Congress-led UPA.

“My father was a minister in the UPA government too. And too many things took place back then which were detrimental to the interests of Dalits. Even pictures of Baba Saheb Ambedkar were not put up at public events. So we parted ways,” he said.

Mr Paswan is understood to have played an instrumental role in getting his father to agree to a realignment with the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Showering praise on PM Modi, Mr Paswan said the current regime has been sensitive to his concerns about Dalits, and cited the example of the Centre’s stand on the creamy layer and lateral entry into bureaucracy to buttress his point.

However, sources in the NDA as well as the INDIA bloc here were of the view that there was more to Paswan’s rhetoric in his speech than the anodyne explanation he offered later.

Sources in both rival coalitions also felt that raking up the resignation of his father was more of an embarrassment to the BJP than the Congress since it was during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that Paswan senior gave up his cabinet berth in protest against the 2002 riots of Gujarat.

He subsequently joined UPA and enjoyed a ministerial stint for five years.

In 2009, he ended up losing his own Lok Sabha seat and was dropped in the second Manmohan Singh ministry, understandably as retribution for turning his back on the Congress and forming a parallel front with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, who was similarly denied a cabinet berth.

Sources also felt that Chirag Paswan, who has been touring flood-hit areas of Bihar to oversee relief work, was trying to expand his base and come out of the shadow of the BJP, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whom he has grudgingly patched up with after having opened a front against.

Moreover, it is also being speculated that Chirag Paswan has indirectly tried to give a message to the BJP leadership that he was not happy with its hobnobbing with his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras who had split his late father’s Lok Janshakti Party and with whom he has a running feud.

Sources in Mr Paswan’s party, however, rejected such speculations stressing that “barely a meeting or two” between Paras and top BJP leaders did not imply that the BJP was trying to humour the disgruntled leader who had resigned from the Union cabinet in protest against his nephew getting weightage in the NDA.

The sources, however, admitted there were issues with the BJP in Jharkhand where assembly polls are due in a few months and past experience, of an alliance, was not satisfactory.

The party was mulling the prospects of going it alone, or a friendly fight, which would help the LJP(R) to expand its base in the tribal state and would agree to contest as part of NDA “only if we get seats of our choice, not a mere token share”, a source said. 

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

New Delhi:

Simultaneous election took place in India till 1967 and there was no problem at the time in terms of federalism or any other factor, Union minister Chirag Paswan said today, questioning the Opposition’s resistance on the issue. Speaking at NDTV’s Yuva Conclave, Mr Paswan, one of the youngest Central ministers, enumerated the reasons why the country needs “One nation one election” now. 

The frequent elections, he said, are not just a financial liability, they also are a drain on manpower needed for the country’s security system, he said. People from the army or paramilitary forces are constantly deployed to states where elections are due, all the year round. 

Citing an example, he said this year, the country has witnessed the Lok Sabha and a string of state elections in May-June. “Now we are having the elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana and after that it would be the turn of Maharashtra,’ he said.   

Then there is the question of the Model Code of Conduct, declared before elections, which puts brakes on development work. That is why elections should be held at one go so that “once it is over, governments can focus on development and its other work,” said the minister, who has been present at the cabinet meeting where the Ram Nath Kovind panel’s proposal was adopted.

This multiple election also has its effect while drawing up the budget, “because somewhere at the back of your mind you know these many states will election this year and money has to be allotted to them,” he said. 

But looking at the country’s history makes it clear that all elections were conducted together since the country got Independence in 1947.

“The system continued till 1967. If there was no ill effect on Federalism then, who should it happen now? Nehru-ji (Jawaharlal Nehru) was there then. Their party. On today’s date, the country needs “One nation one election”, he said.  

The Opposition has contended that the “One nation one election” plan is not only anti-democratic and unconstitutional, it is also impractical. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has called it “an attempt to divert the attention of the public”. 

Hajipur:

A plaque of an educational institute with former Union Minister late Ram Vilas Paswan’s name on it is being used to cover a drain in Bihar’s Hajipur – a constituency he represented eight times since he first won the seat in 1977 – showed a video, drawing condemnation from his lawmaker son, and brother.

The stone plate – that belongs to Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology Institute (CIPET) in the industrial area of Hajipur in Vaishali district – said the hostel of the institute was inaugurated by Mr Paswan on September 26, 2007, when he was the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers in the Manmohan Singh government.

The plaque was apparently being used to cover the gutter inside the premises of the institute’s women’s hostel after its chamber cover broke.

When an officer associated with the CIPET institute was reached out for comments, he refused.

Ram Vilas Paswan’s son, Union Minister Chirag Paswan, who currently represents the Hajipur constituency in Lok Sabha, condemned the incident:

“I received information through the media and journalist colleagues that the nameplate of my leader, my father, was misused in Hajipur, which is extremely unfortunate.”

In a post on X, Mr Paswan informed that he has “instructed that the nameplate be re-installed at a respectable place”.

“I cannot tolerate the insult of my leader under any circumstances, and whoever is found guilty in this incident, action will be taken against him at all costs,” he wrote.

मीडिया और पत्रकार साथियों के माध्यम से यह सूचना प्राप्त हुई कि हाजीपुर में मेरे नेता, मेरे पिता के नाम की नेमप्लेट का गलत तरीके से इस्तेमाल किया गया, जो कि अत्यंत दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है। इस विषय के संज्ञान में आने के बाद मैंने तुरंत कार्रवाई के लिए स्थानीय जिला प्रशासन और सिपेट… pic.twitter.com/wb4BaBqJFy

— युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) September 7, 2024

Ram Vilas Paswan’s younger brother, Pashupati Kumar Paras, who represented the Hajipur seat from 2019 to 2024, sought a police case.

“An FIR should be registered against the culprits and the harshest punishment should be given,” he said.

Crediting his brother for the CIPET institute, he said, “He had worked hard to bring the institute to Hajipur. Today, such a shameful act is being done to the stone slab of the man who brought this college and got it established.”

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan won the Hajipur seat in Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Mr Paswan, an NDA partner, gave up his Jamui seat to contest from Hajipur.

In 2019, the Hajipur seat was won by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a year before Ram Vilas Paswan’s death on October 9, 2020. Pashupati Kumar Paras resigned from the Union cabinet this year when the BJP announced that it would back his nephew.

– With inputs from Kaushal Kishor Pathak.

New Delhi:

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan has been issued a challan for overspeeding in Bihar. An e-challan was issued after Mr Paswan’s vehicle was reportedly found overspeeding through the newly installed e-detection system at a toll plaza in Bihar.

According to reports, Mr Paswan was traveling on a national highway from Hajipur to Champaran.

According to officials, the Bihar Transport Department and traffic police have issued over 16,700 e-challans worth Rs 9.49 crore in a week through an e-detection system installed in 13 toll plazas in the state for violation of Motor Vehicle Act.

The e-detection system checks vehicles and also automatically issues e-challan in the absence of required documents.

Out of 16,755 e-challans issued by the authorities, 9,676 belonged to vehicles registered in other states while 7,079 e-challans were issued to vehicles registered in Bihar in a week from August 7 to 15, officials said.

Patna:

Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Friday rejected rumours of a rift between his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the BJP, asserting that he views himself as “inseparable” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an interview to PTI, Mr Paswan said he was willing to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly polls as an NDA partner “if the BJP so desires”, and made light of estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras’ recent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

“My love for Narendra Modi is unshakeable. I am inseparable from him, for as long as he is Prime Minister”, said Mr Paswan, when asked about speculations triggered by his stance on issues like Wakf Board reforms, lateral entry into bureaucracy and creamy layer and sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes.

He pointed out “as a matter of fact, my views always reflected the government’s stand. A case in point is sending the Wakf Bill to the Joint Parliamentary Committee”.

Speculations have been rife that Mr Paswan, formerly a docile junior ally, had begun to flex his muscles in the backdrop of a decline in fortunes of the BJP, which is now short of majority in Lok Sabha, and depends on allies’ support to stay in power.

However, the LJP (RV) chief dismissed the speculations and made it clear that his party was not averse to contesting polls, in states like Jharkhand, as an NDA partner.

“The fact is, our party has an alliance with BJP in Bihar and at the Centre. So, we will abide by coalition dharma at national level and in my home state. And although we have no strings attached in states like Jharkhand, it does not mean we are averse to a tie-up with BJP there. If the BJP and other NDA partners want us on board, we are game”, the Union Minister said.

He also scoffed at rumours that have followed the meeting between Mr Paras, who had in 2021 split the Lok Janshakti Party founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, and Shah earlier this week.

Some leaders in the opposition INDIA bloc have claimed that Shah was indirectly sending a message across to Mr Paswan that he could ill-afford to defy the BJP which had many aces up its sleeve.

Mr Paswan, however, maintained “He (Mr Paras) has lost all public support. He had been meeting all people ahead of Lok Sabha polls, too. That exercise proved to be of no avail”.

Notably, Mr Paras, who heads Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, had given up his Union cabinet berth in protest against his party not getting any seat to contest in the Lok Sabha polls.

Mr Paswan, who was until then the lone MP of LJP(RV), got five seats, and the party went on to win all of these. Mr Paswan himself grabbed Hajipur, the pocket borough of his late father, leaving Mr Paras, who had won the seat in 2019, in a sulk.

The 41-year-old actor was also asked about the recent controversy around Kangana Ranaut, the BJP MP whom he calls an “old friend” and who was his co-actor in his only shot at Bollywood.

“I think the matter should have been closed once the BJP made it clear that she had expressed a personal view which the party did not agree with”, said Mr Paswan, referring to an interview in which Ms Ranaut had alleged that girls were raped at the site where farmers were carrying out their protests, which had created a situation comparable to the restive Bangladesh.

Mr Paswan, however, expressed disgust over Punjab leader Simran Simranjit Singh Mann’s taunt that Ms Ranaut seemed to have had an “experience of rape” herself.

“This is unacceptable”, said Mr Paswan, adding “we cannot trivialise a crime that causes so much trauma to the victim. Especially at a time when the nation’s conscience has been rocked by the horrific incident involving a doctor in Kolkata, which has evoked such strong remarks from the President, the highest constitutional authority”. 

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

Ranchi:

Union minister Chirag Paswan was on Sunday re-elected as Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president for five years at its national executive meeting in Ranchi. 

The decision was taken unanimously at the meeting, Mr Paswan said.

“The national executive, in its meeting here, has re-elected me for the next five years,” he said.

Mr Paswan, the Minister of Food Processing Industries, said the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu Kashmir and Jharkhand were also discussed in the meeting.

In Jharkhand, the party may contest the polls either with national alliance partner BJP or on its own, he said.

“We have taken suggestions from the state units whether they want to contest the elections in alliance or alone in states where our organisation is strong… At the national level, we have an alliance with the BJP and we are a strong coalition partner of the NDA.

“In the 2014 elections, we had a tie-up with the BJP for vidhansabha polls in Jharkhand and contested the Shikaripara seat. If there is a respectable seat-sharing, we may go with an alliance or else we can go alone in the polls,” Mr Paswan said.

Assembly polls are due in Jharkhand later this year.

He also pitched for a nationwide caste census, but cautioned against making the figures public as it will create a “rift” in society.

“We have always emphasised that we want the caste census to be conducted… It will ensure that the government has correct numbers. However, I do not want the figures of the census to come out in public. That may create a rift,” said the minister, whose late father Ram Vilas Paswan was among the tallest Dalit leaders of the country.

He also said a special resolution was passed at the national executive meeting to extend a motion of thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his welfare initiatives and work towards the SC-ST community.

Commenting on the creamy layer in SC community, he said: “We have been opposed to it since they are not just victims of social and educational backwardness, but even untouchability”.

Mr Paswan said even after so many years of Independence, Dalit grooms are prevented from riding a horse during weddings, and “I even learnt about an IPS officer seeking security for his marriage”.

“Even today we hear that members of the Dalit community cannot enter temples… The observation of the Supreme Court did not have any mention of untouchability. The PM has also said that as per constitutional norms, the provisions for SCs would continue,” he said.

Earlier this month, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgement that state governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.

Supreme Court judge Justice B R Gavai had said that states must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) and deny them the benefit of reservation. 

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

The Centre today requested the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to withdraw its advertisement for lateral entry into bureaucracy, a reversal following criticism from the Opposition and pressure from ally Chirag Paswan, who had reservations against the move. After the government’s U-turn, the minister thanked the Prime Minister who “understood the concerns of people from SC/ST and OBCs”.

UPSC last week issued an advertisement seeking “talented and motivated Indian nationals” for lateral recruitment to various senior positions within the Union government. These positions included Joint Secretary, Director, and Deputy Secretary in 24 ministries, with a total of 45 posts up for grabs.

Yesterday, Mr Paswan said that “reservation provisions must be there in any government appointment. There are no ifs and buts in this. No reservation exists in the private sector and if it is not implemented in government positions as well…”

Mr Paswan said he was in with the Prime Minister and his office and said he held in-depth discussions with me and added that “I submitted relevant documents to his office. In all kinds of government appointments, rules of the reservation should be followed by the government,” says Union Minister and LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan at a press conference in Patna, Bihar.”

VIDEO | “Since the time the lateral entry issue came to my notice, I raised it in front of concerned authorities at different places. I presented the concerns of SC/ST and backward people regarding this issue to the Prime Minister. For the past two days, I have been in touch with… pic.twitter.com/twY4YO5kiz

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 20, 2024

The Union Minister thanked the Prime Minister and said, “I am happy that my Prime Minister Modiji understood the concerns of SC/ST and backward people. My party LJP (Ram Vilas) and I thank PM Modi.”

The lateral entry move was shredded by the Congress, who called it a ploy to snatch jobs from disadvantaged classes and give it to cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor.

The Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have alleged that it is a “conspiracy” by the BJP to appoint its ideological allies to high posts through the back door.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that while the UPA government introduced lateral entry to appoint select experts in some areas, the NDA government is using it to “snatch the rights” of Dalits, tribals and backward classes.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said the Congress’ criticism of the lateral entry system exposes its “hypocrisy”.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Vaishnaw said. “INC (Indian National Congress) hypocrisy is evident on lateral entry matter. It was the UPA government which developed the concept of lateral entry,” he said.