Chirag Paswan launches no-holds-barred attack on Nitish Kumar; confident of legal battle

Penning an emotional letter on Monday, LJP president Chirag Paswan launched a direct attack on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, alleging his role in poaching party leaders. Explaining the decision to go solo in the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, he claimed that LJP was offered only 15 seats as a part of the NDA. He stressed that LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan had never compromised with Kumar throughout his political career and listed examples to buttress his case. 

LJP chief Chirag Paswan remarked, "In the February 2005 election, 29 LJP MLAs were poached along with our state president. In the November 2005 election, JD(U) poached all our legislators. After that, JD(U) poached our lone MLA after the 2020 polls and now it has repeated its policy of divide and rule by poaching 5 of our MPs. Nitish Kumar tried to finish Ram Vilas Paswan politically many times and the division between the Dalits and Mahadalits is one example." 

Moreover, the Jamui MP claimed that his father was unhappy when JD(U) was reinduced into NDA in 2017. Alleging that JD(U) had tried unsuccessfully to defeat the 6 LJP candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he added that the Bihar CM had displayed arrogance by pretending to not know about Ram Vilas Paswan's ill health. Weighing in on his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras' rebellion, he said, "Merely 9 months after my father's death, he left the family's side for his personal ambitions and destroyed Ram Vilas Paswan's ideology by taking refuge in a person against whom our leader always spoke". Chirag Paswan also exuded confidence in winning both the legal as well as political battle to retain control over LJP. 

Rival camps vie for control of 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 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. 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 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.