The INDIA bloc of the opposition is reported to have offered eight Lok Sabha seats to Chirag Paswan, the Chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), in Bihar, amidst ongoing seat-sharing disputes within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in the state.
According to sources cited in an NDTV report, Chirag Paswan’s party has also been offered two seats in Uttar Pradesh.
This proposal of ten seats across two states holds significance as the NDA has purportedly offered only six seats to Chirag Paswan, with the condition that two of those six seats be shared with his uncle and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party Chief Pashupati Paras. Chirag’s relationship with his uncle Pashupati Paras has been strained, particularly since Paras assumed the role of Union Minister of Food Processing Industries in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet in 2021.
However, the offer from the INDIA bloc does not include Pashupati Paras. Chirag will have the opportunity to field candidates in six seats that the undivided Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) contested in 2019, along with two additional constituencies in Bihar and two in Uttar Pradesh, as per the NDTV report.
Following a coup by Pashupati Paras after the demise of Chirag Paswan’s late father, Ram Vilas Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party split in 2021.
These political developments in Bihar are noteworthy as the state is currently under NDA rule with Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. Chirag and Nitish have had strained relations, with Chirag criticizing Nitish after Pashupati Paras was inducted into the cabinet in 2021.
Chirag had exited the NDA in 2020 due to differences with Nitish, but he rejoined the alliance last year when Nitish Kumar was part of the Mahagathbandhan, now in opposition.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU had contested together, with the undivided LJP winning all six seats it contested.
