BJP picks Chirag Paswan over his uncle Pashupati Paras

Mr. Paswan says his concerns have been addressed by the BJP.

BJP president and Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan meet on March 13, 2024. Photo: X/@iChiragPaswan via PTI

The BJP has chosen Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) Party over his uncle Pashupati Paras’s Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, settling days of speculation. According to sources, the BJP has agreed to concede five seats to Mr. Chirag Paswan, including the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency that his father and Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan won eight times in the past. It is currently held by Mr. Paras.    

A jubilant Mr. Paswan posted pictures of his meeting with BJP president J.P Nadda on social media. “As a member of the NDA, today in a meeting with BJP National President Hon Shri @jpnadda ji, we have together finalised the seat sharing in Bihar for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. The same will be announced in due course,” he wrote on X.

The breakthrough came after Mr. Chirag Paswan’s public posturing that he was ready to walk out from the alliance if the BJP did not give him a “respectable share”. 

Sources familiar with the negotiation between the two sides said that for the past one week, senior BJP leader and former party State president Mangal Pandey was told to settle the feud between the two LJP factions — Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) headed by Mr. Chirag Paswan and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party headed by his uncle, Mr. Pashupati Paras. But the talks bore no result as Mr. Chirag Paswan clearly laid down the condition that he would remain a part of the NDA only if his uncle’s faction was not given any berth. 

“We were clear right from the beginning of the negotiations that the person who engineered a split in the party founded by Ram Vilas-ji should not be accommodated in the NDA, either by giving them a Rajya Sabha berth or with seats in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls,” a senior leader close to Mr. Chirag Paswan said.

Sources said the BJP acceded to this demand based on the condition that Mr. Chirag Paswan would not press for the 2019 seat sharing formula. In 2019, the united LJP under the late Ram Vilas Paswan, who passed away on October 8, 2020 was offered six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and one Rajya Sabha berth. The party won all six seats it fought.

After the 2021 split in the party, five MPs aligned with Mr. Paras, leaving Mr. Chirag Paswan alone. The BJP has now asked Mr. Chirag Paswan to choose from any five of these six seats.