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. 
 

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.)