By Tirthankara Mitra
Chirag Paswan has punched above his weight securing 29 seats for his Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas) out of the total of 243 seats in the coming Bihar assembly polls.. He made BJP accommodate him capitalising on the saffron camp’s weak footing among the Dalits.
The BJP national leadership was shaken by its poor performance in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. A sizeable portion of Dalit votes had gone to the RJD and other parties’ kitty.
The saffron camp despite its much-vaunted outreach had failed to fill up the political vaccum created by Bahujan Samaj Party’s decline. The controversy over the change in Constitution that BJP -majority government may alter the reservation structure ahead of the Lok Sabha polls further damaged its prospects in 2024 polls.
A shoe hurling incident at Chief Justice B R Gavai and the alleged suicide of Dalit IPS officer Y Puran Kumar in Haryana are reported to have weighed in the mind of the alliance. before Bihar polls, sources in the saffron camp stated. The BJP finalized the formula of allocating seats to smaller allies to accommodate Chirag, sources added.
Going by this formula, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Jitan Ram Majhi’s. Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) were given six seats each while LJP(RV) which had only five seats in last year’s polls, was given 29 constituencies.
Saffron camp sources said that there was a broad understanding that LJP( RV) will not be given more than 20 seats. But such understanding went haywire with Chirag demanding 40 seats.
Seat sharing talks went in a limbo thereafter. Unwilling to let a fissure turn into a crack, the BJP leadership under Amit Shah settled for 29 seats.
Chirag had been at work since last year to get a bigger share of seats. He announced his return to politics taking pot shots at the Nitish Kumar led state government zeroing in on the law and order issue.
On the other hand, he focused on BJP’s diminished tally in 2019 elections. He drove in the point that the lack of outreach among the Dalits has landed the BJP in a weak spot.
Chirag’s brother-in-law Arun Bharti went public stating Nitish Kumar to be an aged leader. He suggested that Bihar deserved a young leader though he did not name Chirag.
The pressure tactics had begun. Even though the JD(U) leadership asked its BJP counterparts to make Chirag tone down his remarks, the latter ‘s game plan gained fruition with 29 seats being allotted to his party.
The seat allotment left even Nitish Kumar unhappy. He expressed his unhappiness at Rajgir and Sonbarsa being given to LJP(RV).
Chirag Paswan has come a long way. He was in political wilderness four years ago
His uncle Pasupati Kumar Paras had split the party. He had joined NDA with four of the six LJP MPs.
Chirag was left out in the cold. There were no takers for this political greenhorn.
But Chirag read the political winds accurately. He reiterated his loyalty to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He did this even after he was evicted from his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s bungalow in the national Capital after the latter’s passing in 2022.
He banked on the sympathy factor and received political dividends. His ability to attract big crowds did not escape the notice of BJP. He was literally on the road after eviction from their Jan Path bungalow. The national media carried the picture amidst his belongings strewn around him.
Chirag received a touching letter from Modi on his father’s first death anniversary. It endorsed his political standing and smoothed his return to NDA in 2023.
The Paswan scion has played his cards well though he commands only 5 per cent of the votes. But he has grown in political stature and the BJP leadership feels that he can be ignored only at its own peril.
Accommodating Chirag with 29 seats, the saffron camp has rubbed Nitish Kumar the wrong way. LJP(RV)’s performance in the coming elections will say whether as a politician he has arrived in Bihar. (IPA Service)
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