A political drama is unfolding the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar, with five of its six MLAs joining hands to oust the party supremo Chirag Paswan. The rebels have met the speaker to instead place Paswan's uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in his place. Why this decision? As reported by PTI, Paras said: "Wrong decisions led to LJP's marginalisation in Bihar. I consider CM Nitish Kumar as good leader. I have not broken party but saved it," he said.
The praise of CM Nitish Kumar is significant. There is bad blood between Nitish and the former NDA constituent LJP. In the previous Bihar assembly polls, Chirag, who had taken on the helm of the party after his father's passing, had openly challenged Nitish and JD(U) as his primary opponents. Chirag's plan was to cut into the JD(U) votes in the 143 seats that his party was contesting and emerge a kingmaker in case the NDA falls short of majority. He claimed that there was a wave against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that could result in a loss for the ruling alliance in the polls. He also urged the voters not to vote JD(U), stating that an alliance of his party and the BJP will come to power in the state after the assembly polls. When the results came, suffice to say his calculations were completely off base.
Now, political analysts see Nitish's hand in the breakup of LJP.
The rebel group, which includes MPs Prince Raj, Chandan Singh, Veena Devi and Mehboob Ali Kaiser, claimed to have long been unhappy with Chirag Paswan's style of functioning, with the LJP president now left virtually isolated at the top after taking on the mantle following his father Ram Vilas Paswan's death in 2020.
The rebel group may back the JD(U) in the coming days, according to reports.
