In addition to withdrawing his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party from the BJP-led national alliance, Union Minister Pashupati Paras announced his resignation on Tuesday morning. This occurs one day after the BJP approved a seat-sharing agreement with Mr. Paras’s nephew Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
BJP-LJP Agreement Shakes Bihar’s Political Landscape Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections
The BJP-LJP agreement, which is a component of a larger Bihar agreement for the Lok Sabha election scheduled for next month, completely sidelines Mr. Paras’ party; Mr. Paswan’s LJP was granted five seats, including the Hajipur seat that his uncle won in the 2019 election. The RLJP was given zero seats.
“The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, has made an announcement. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has my gratitude. My party and I were treated unfairly. I am thus leaving my position as minister.”
Regarding talks of a deal with the opposition, Mr. Paras remained reticent, either with the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance at the state level or with the Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level. But he has already declared that his RLJP will run for the Hajipur seat.
RLJP’s Assertive Stance Amidst Political Realignment in Bihar
Talk of a deal within the opposition began last week when Mr. Paras stated that his RLJP and its five MPs, including himself, would contest the seats they won in the previous election and that the party is “free to go anywhere” amid reports that the BJP had completed its Bihar deals and that he had been frozen out.
Five years ago, as a member of the then-undivided Lok Janshakti Party, Mr. Paras won Hajipur. At that time, it was headed by Ram Vilas Paswan, the father of Chirag Paswan and the founder of the party and Union Minister. The BJP has never won Hajipur, where the elder Paswan served as an MP eight times.
The fact that the national party has chosen to support Chirag Paswan’s LJP faction highlights the perception that he now has total control over the local vote. The Paswan population in Bihar makes up approximately 6% of the voting population.
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BJP Consolidates Influence in Bihar’s Political Arena, Reshaping Alliances
When it became evident that Chirag Paswan’s unit had total control over the Paswan vote, the Paras faction was abandoned. Six percent of the electorate is from the community.
More than half of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats will be contested by the BJP, indicating that it now holds a stronger position in its relationship with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United).
The party kept 17 seats and gave the JDU 16; in 2019, the two ran for 17 seats apiece, with the LJP—then led by Ram Vilas Paswan—running for and winning the remaining seats. Additionally, the BJP provided a 100% strike rate. Kishanganj went to the Congress, and the JDU only lost one seat.
