Bihar polls: LJP makes NDA introspect

Speculations are rife that LJP may leave NDA and join Mahagathbandhan but NDA leaders asserting that all is well and the alliance is intact.

New Delhi: There have been speculations whether the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a constituent of the NDA, would remain with it or not for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections despite assertions from the coalition leaders that there was no rift.

LJP chief and son of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag Paswan, who also represents the Jamui Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar, has been quite vocal in asking for 43 seats to contest from out of the total 243 assembly seats.

He met party's Bihar Parliamentary Board chief Raju Tiwari in the national capital ahead of the board's crucial meeting on Thursday.

He has been preparing the party for the polls and says that the LJP workers and leaders are working on each and every assembly seat.

The junior Paswan has also been critical of Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the migrant crisis resulting therefrom.

Meanwhile, NDA has been working hard to keep its flock together.

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Founded by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP had severed its links with the Congress-led UPA and walked over to the NDA ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Ram Vilas Paswan handed over the party mantle to his son Chirag Paswan last year.

Recently, Chirag Paswan also raised many eyebrows with his cryptic remark "we are supporting the government in the state but are not a part of it".

The LJP chief was, understandably, venting his frustration at his party having no representation in the state government after his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a member of the cabinet, got elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019.

Reports have claimed that Paswan has been unhappy over Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), expressing unwillingness to part with a respectable number of seats in assembly polls for the LJP, which had contested six out of 40 in Bihar in Lok Sabha.

Last week, a district unit chief of LJP in Bihar was also removed from the post for giving a statement before the media that the NDA was "atoot" (unbreakable) in Bihar.