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Updated June 20th, 2021 at 07:17 IST

Chirag Paswan & his uncle differ over outcome of meeting with LS Speaker as cracks widen

On Saturday, rebel LJP MP Pashupati Kumar Paras differed with his nephew Chirag Paswan on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's assessment of the current situation.

Reported by: Akhil Oka
Chirag Paswan, LJP
Image: PTI | Image:self
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On Saturday, rebel LJP MP Pashupati Kumar Paras differed with his nephew Chirag Paswan on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's assessment of the current situation. The trouble within LJP started when Paras and 4 other Lok Sabha MPs—Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser, Veena Devi, Prince Raj and Chandan Singh—urged Birla to remove Paswan as the Parliamentary Party leader in Lok Sabha on June 13. Thereafter, the Lower House Secretariat formally notified Paras, Kaiser and Singh as the Leader, Deputy Leader and Chief Whip respectively on Monday evening. 

However, Paswan sought a review of this decision citing that the Central Parliamentary Board of the party had not accorded its approval and met Birla in this regard on Saturday. While he stated that the Lok Sabha Speaker had agreed to reconsider the situation, Paras disputed this claim. According to the younger brother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, Birla told the Jamui MP that the right decision has been taken as LJP's constitution is different than that of the country. 

While Om Birla has not officially reacted after the meeting with Chirag Paswan, he told the media on Friday, "Choosing a parliamentary party leader is an internal matter of political parties. If a party follows the due procedure to chose the parliamentary party leader and the chief whip submits a letter informing the same, then the decision is to be recorded. The decision (of recording Pasupati Kumar Paras as the parliamentary party of LJP) was appropriate as there were signatures of five MPs and the letter of the chief whip."

Chirag Paswan summons national executive meeting

The rift intensified on Tuesday after the Paras camp removed Chirag Paswan from the LJP president's position citing the principle of 'One Man, One Post' and appointed Surajbhan Singh as the working president until a new chief is elected. In response, the LJP national executive committee "unanimously" decided to sack the 5 rebel MPs from the party and authorized Paswan to take all decisions for the upcoming Assembly polls. In an important move, the Paswan camp opposed Paras's claim on the LJP president's post before the Election Commission on Friday.

While the leaders close to the younger brother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan claimed that he was unanimously elected as the party chief, the late Ram Vilas Paswan's son claimed that only 9 out of the 75 National Executive members attended this meeting. Asserting that he continues to be the LJP president, Chirag Paswan added that the process was illegal as suspended members elected his uncle. Meanwhile, he has convened a meeting of the National Executive at 11.30 am on Sunday. 

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Published June 20th, 2021 at 07:17 IST

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