Chirag Paswan 'hurt' by BJP's silence amid family feud, blames Nitish Kumar for LJP split

As Lok Janshakti Party has been embroiled in the family feud between Chirag Paswan and uncle Pashupati Paras, both eyeing to take control of the party's reigns, Chirag Paswan has expressed disappointment towards BJP for maintaining silence amid the internal arm twisting in the LJP as he blamed Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for the crisis in his party.

Speaking with PTI, Chirag Paswan said, "Relations with BJP cannot remain one-sided; We will consider all possibilities if attempts to corner me continue. My father Ram Vilas Paswan and I stood by BJP like a rock, but they're not there when I expected them in such difficult times."

He blamed Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for LJP's internal crisis saying that Nitish Kumar has engineered a split in his party. Speaking of disappointment with the BJP, he said, "I expected BJP to help sort things out; their silence definitely hurts."

Underlining that he retains his faith in Modi, Paswan said, "But if you are cornered, pushed and forced to make a decision, then the party will consider all probabilities...The LJP will have to make a decision about its political future based on who stood by it and who did not."

Chirag Paswan, who has retained the LJP President's post, wrote an emotional letter on Monday, launching a direct attack on CM Nitish Kumar. In his letter, he listed out incidents when the LJP MLAs were poached by the JD(U), while contending that the JD(U) is now repeating its divide and rule policy.

Chirag Paswan had also written to Election Commission to seeking rights on the party symbol. Countering his uncle Pashupati Paras, LJP President Chirag Paswan on Sunday, also announced that he will undertake 'Aashirwad yatra' around Bihar on July 5.

Family dispute in LJP

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 Speaker Om Birla to remove Chirag 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. The rift intensified on June 15 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 Chirag 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 June 18. 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 LJP national executive meeting held on June 20 reposed faith in Chirag Paswan's leadership. 

Notably, within a year of the demise of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan, son Chirag is facing opposition from within the party. LJP is currently a part of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre. LJP was formed by the late Ram Vilas Paswan in 2000. Paswan, a heavyweight leader in Bihar politics, passed away in October 2020.