Bihar: Will Union Minister Pasupati Kumar Paras' RLJP to Walk out of NDA?

Patna: Angry and uncomfortable over being ignored and sidelined in seat sharing formula in Bihar's ruling BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) to contest 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister Pasupati Kumar Paras, who is heading Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), is likely to quit the NDA and may join hands with Mahagathbandhan, which is a part of opposition alliance INDIA.

There are reports doing rounds here in political circles that Paras is likely to make a decision on Friday or Saturday to resign from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and dump NDA. 

A senior RLJP leader told NewsClick that Paras was deeply hurt by the decision of the top leadership of the BJP that refused to give his party any seats to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and reportedly finalised a seat-sharing deal with his estranged nephew Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Paras's RLJP is an ally of NDA and has been demanding decent seats to contest.

Paras's RLJP made its stand clear to the BJP on Thursday that Paras will contest from the Hajipur parliamentary seat. This is widely seen as a move by Paras to send a strong message to the BJP. Only two days ago, it was reported that Chirag Paswan would contest from Hajipur after the BJP agreed to support him in place of Paras, the incumbent MP from the seat.

Para won the seat in 2019. Chirag Paswan, who used to claim himself as Hanuman of PM Narendra Modi, is the MP from the Jamui seat that he won in 2014 and 2019.

According to sources in BJP here, top leaders of the saffron party in New Delhi are trying to pacify Paras and convince him not to pull out of the NDA.

Political watchers here pointed out that Paras might not be a mass leader, and his RLJP is a small party with a limited support base in some districts, but he can easily damage NDA in a few seats if he pulled out of it ahead of polls.

"BJP understand it and is not in the mood to take the risk of NDA minus Paras. But now it is up to Paras to continue in NDA or not in view of a clear-cut move of the BJP that reportedly finalised the seat-sharing formula with Chirag-led LJP (Ram Vilas) and leaving him (Paras) high and dry. None other than Chirag Paswan claimed it in public."

The RLJP parliamentary board, in its meeting on Thursday in New Delhi, authorised Paras to decide whether to stay with NDA, given the political development in the last few days. Three of five RLJP MPs, including Paras, Prince Raj and Chandan Singh, were present in the meeting. On Wednesday, a high-level meeting of RLJP leaders was also held at Paras's official residence in New Delhi.

"Paras is unhappy after Chirag Paswan claimed to media that the top leadership of BJP has finalised giving his party five seats, including Hajipur. Chirag Paswan has reportedly demanded six seats, including Hajipur. This angered Paras because the BJP gave the Hajipur seat to Chirag Paswan even though Paras repeatedly asserted in recent days that he would contest from Hajipur.

"In 2019, when LJP was united and its founder Ram Vilas Paswan was alive, it was senior Paswan who had chosen his younger brother Paras to contest from the Hajipur seat, considered his traditional seat. Ram Vilas Paswan did not invite his son Chirag Paswan to contest from Hajipur," RLJP leader Lalan Kumar Chandrawanshi said.

LJP was split in 2021 after the death of Ram Vilas Paswan. Paras revolted against Chirag Paswan, who claimed to represent his father's political legacy. Paras managed to get the support of five of six LJP MPs then. Only Chirag Paswan opposed him. Since then, political rivalry has continued between the Chirag Paswan-led faction of LJP(Ram Vilas) and RLJP headed by Paras.

Sources in RLJP confirmed that BJP top leadership offered Paras to appoint him Governor and a berth in the Bihar cabinet to Prince Raj, his other nephew. Raj, party MP from Samastipur, is the son of Ramchandar Paswan, elder brother of Paras. But Paras refused to accept it and demanded decent seats to contest.

Reports in local Hindi dailies in the last few days suggest that BJP is in trouble over the seat-sharing formula as its small allies, including Rashtriya Lok Morcha of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha and Hindustani Awam Morcha of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, are also unhappy over one seat offered to them and are demanding more. For BJP, it became a problem after the re-entry of Nitish Kumar's JD-U in NDA on January 28.

JD-U leaders have made it clear not to compromise on contesting less than 16 seats, the number it won in the previous elections. In the last Lok Sabha elections, JD-U contested in alliance with BJP and won 16 out of 17 contested seats.

On the other hand, opposition Mahagathbandhan has also yet to finalise its seat-sharing formula. Talks are going on among the RJD, Congress, and left parties about seat sharing. As per this formula, the main focus is winning the elections seat by seat to prevent the BJP-led NDA from replicating its 2019 success in Bihar.

In the previous Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA secured 39 out of 40 parliamentary seats, with the Congress winning only one seat and the RJD failing to secure any seats, marking a significant setback for the party.