Lok Janshakti Party
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Leadership
2019: Ram Vilas passes baton to Chirag
Dipak Dash, Nov 5, 2019: The Times of India
After steering Lok Janshakti Party for 19 years, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced that his son Chirag Paswan has been unanimously chosen as the new president. The passing of the baton was smooth as Chirag’s name was proposed by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras and received unanimous support from party leaders, including newly elected Samastipur MP Prince Raj who is the son of late Ramchandra Paswan.
Soon after taking charge, Chirag, a two-time MP from Jamui, said that his focus will be to to expand the party base. He told mediapersons that he has already written to BJP leaders identifying six seats that LJP would like to contest as an ally in the upcoming Jharkhand election. LJP had fought just one seat in the last poll. The decision comes ahead of the 2020 state polls in Bihar.
Chirag said though he has been chosen as party chief, his father would always remain his “national president”. Paswan, who is a senior minister in Modi cabinet, said he was relieved from a bigger responsibility.
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2021
LJP splits Chirag left out
June 15, 2021: The Times of India
In a contemporary version of the palace coups of yore, Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother and nephew joined hands to depose the late leader’s son Chirag Paswan as leader of the family outfit in Lok Sabha.
Five of the six LJP MPs joined the putsch, leaving Chirag battling for the legacy of his late father, a respected figure for Dusadhs, a Dalit category in Bihar. Paswan’s younger brother Pashupati Paras is the new leader. His nephew Prince Raj has sided with Paras. TNN
LJP split seen as JD(U)’s revenge for poll reverses
Pashupati Paras is a known figure in Bihar politics and currently represents Hajipur, the constituency of his elder brother Ramvilas Paswan, in Lok Sabha. Chirag’s dethronement climaxed a dizzying turn of events and is believed to have been executed by JD(U) as revenge against Chirag for causing the defeat of Nitish Kumar’s nominees in the last assemblypolls.The precision targeting of JD(U) nominees left the party languishing in the third spot, way behind its archrival RJD as well as ally BJP.
Seething with resentment, JD(U) had sworn revenge. It was exacted in a forensic manner, with Chirag failing to get wind of the plot until the rebels had met the Lok Sabha Speaker on Sunday with the plea that they be recognised as a separate group under Paras. JD(U) was, quite naturally, thrilled with the success of the game plan, with party chief R C P Singh exulting, “Chirag has reaped what he had sown.”
BJP kept an indulgent distance from the events but did not appear to be mourning Chirag’s embarrassment. Party functionary in Bihar Prem Ranjan Patel said the Paswan dynast invited it upon himself. The speed with which the “rebels” got recognised as a separate group, within less than 24 hours of meeting Speaker Om Birla, was also being talked about in political circles. To be sure, however, the rebels fulfilled all the criteria laid down under the anti-defection law to earn the recognition from the Speaker for being the “real” stuff.
BJP, used to the old school politics practised by Ramvilas Paswan, was wary of Chirag’s swagger and maximalist posture. During the LJP-JD(U) feud, it had maintained a posture of neutrality, much to the annoyance of JD(U), which quickly sniffed a conspiracy. BJP soured on Chirag after seeing that he had also undercut the prospects of saffron candidates and had smoothened the way for RJD biggies, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap.
The “hands off” stance during JD(U)’s retaliation can help minimise the pall of any suspicion lingering in JD (U) about a closet understanding between its ally and Chirag, its self-avowed rival.
Of course, family equations played an important part, with Paras always suspected to be smarting under Chirag, who tried, unspectacularly so, his hand at acting before coming into the family vocation. Paras was hugely embarrassed when pressure from Chirag forced him to eat his praise for Nitish. He was helped by the discomfort that many MPs, mostly a bunch of political adventurers, and others had felt about Chirag’s style, finding it to be too formal and distant.
On Monday, with the tables turned on him by an uncle who remained unscrupulously devout to Ramvilas, and a cousin who appeared blissful playing second fiddle, Chirag tried to reach out to the estranged part of the family. He drove to the apartment where the rebels were holding a meeting but Paras dodged him. With the rebels having been recognised as LJP, Chirag is left with only the “sympathy card”. He can hope to turn it into an ace by tapping into the reverence the Paswan community has for Ramvilas.
