Actor-turned-politician and son of Lok Jan Shakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag Paswan filed his nomination for the Jamui (SC) Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday, raising the glamour quotient of the contest in the Naxal-dominated district.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar of the Congress also filed papers for the Sasaram seat at Bhabua, the district headquarters of Kaimur district.
It is a debut election for Mr. Chirag Paswan, who is set to face Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary of the Janata Dal (United). Jamui is now held by the JD(U)’s Bhudeo Choudhary.
“It’s a small start,” Mr. Chirag Paswan told television channels in Jamui after filing his nomination. Batting for the development agenda, he said, “I want development in my constituency. We have nothing to do with secularism or communalism. We do not want to be trapped in the politics of caste or religion.”
Mr. Chirag Paswan’s entry into the fray comes at a time when his party changed its long-held ideological position and forged an alliance with the BJP. The senior Paswan had been a staunch critic of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Chirag, who took over leadership of the party that is struggling to survive, hopes to post a victory riding on the Modi ‘wave’.
In Sasaram, Ms. Meira Kumar faces a challenge from none other than her own niece.
