In a major blow to the BJP's ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in Bihar, 22 leaders resigned for not getting tickets in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The leaders said that party chief Chirag Paswan "sold all Lok Sabha tickets" and added that they would now support the opposition INDIA bloc, according to ANI.
Prominent among these leaders are former minister Renu Kushwaha, former MLA and national general secretary of LJP Satish Kumar, state organisation minister Ravindra Singh, Ajay Kushwaha, Sanjay Singh and state general secretary Rajesh Dangi.
"Tickets should be given to the party workers instead of people from outside,” Kushwaha was quoted as saying by ANI. “Tickets were given to outsiders, which meant that competent and hardworking people were not getting their due. Do we belong to the labour class that we will work for you and make you a leader," Kushwaha said.
Accusing Chirag Paswan of betraying the people of Bihar, Kumar said the rebel LJP (Ram Vilas) leaders will now back the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha elections.
"When such important elections are coming up, the LJP chief has given tickets to such people that the party workers are stunned. The people who used to raise slogans 'Hail Chirag Paswan' day and night and hoped for a 'new Bihar' have been betrayed. Their aspirations have been crushed," he said. "Now, to save the country, we will support the INDIA bloc."
Singh, too, slammed Chirag Paswan and said he "sold the tickets".
"Chirag Paswan has played an emotional game with the people of Bihar. When he got five seats due to our hard work, he sold all those tickets. People of Bihar will give him an answer," he said.
On March 30, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) had announced candidates for all the five seats in Bihar it will be contesting as an NDA ally.
While Chirag's brother-in-law Arun Bharti filed nomination papers from Jamui, the party president, who has represented the seat twice in a row, chose to contest from Hajipur, his late father Ram Vilas Paswan's stronghold.
For the remaining three seats of Samastipur, Khagaria and Vaishali, the party fielded Shambhavi Choudhary, Rajesh Verma and sitting MP Veena Devi, respectively, according to a statement issued by the LJP (Ram Vilas).
Choudhary, who will be making her debut, is the daughter of Ashok Chaudhary, a senior JD(U) leader and one of the most influential ministers in the Nitish Kumar government.
Her seat, reserved for dalits, was held by Prince Raj, Chirag's cousin who joined uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in a revolt that resulted in a split in the LJP, founded by the late Paswan.
Verma, a confidant of Chirag, has been preferred over sitting MP Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser, who had initially sided with Paras but changed tack recently and lobbied hard with Chirag, hoping for a third consecutive term.
According to NDA sources, Verma has been chosen because of a "broader understanding between coalition partners" to ensure adequate representation for the Vaishyas, known to be BJP loyalists.
Veena Devi, who was the first among LJP rebels to have reverted to the Chirag camp, is an upper caste Rajput, married to Dinesh Kumar Singh, a JD(U) MLC.
(With PTI inputs)
