RJD leader meets Chirag Paswan, says anti-BJP alliance needed

LJP leader Chirag Paswan. Credit: PTI file photo

RJD leader Shyam Rajak on Monday met LJP MP Chirag Paswan in Delhi, calling for Opposition unity against NDA in Bihar, days after Chirag's uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras was inducted as a Union minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet.

Chirag, the son of former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is out in the cold after his uncle Paras pulled off a coup in the party, and with the help of four other Lok Sabha MPs replaced the former as the Leader of LJP in Lok Sabha and then as party president.

Chirag had opposed his uncle's induction in the Union Cabinet and had met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and even approached the court but could not get any respite. Immediately after the internal rebellion in LJP in which Nitish Kumar's party JDU backed Paras, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had reached out to Chirag reminding him how his father Lalu Prasad had helped late Ram Vilas Paswan become a Rajya Sabha MP in past when Paswan had lost Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

Read | Chirag taunts Paras upon landing cabinet berth; declares he won't give up

While the options for Chirag are running out with the BJP having cold-shouldered him, the absence of any elections in Bihar in near future could be a reason for no immediate tie-up between RJD and Chirag as the latter has not much to gain from it.

However, the coming together of the two leaders- Tejaswi and Chirag, could redraw a new social coalition and could also test whether Chirag had inherited the political legacy of his father or LJP's social base has shifted to his uncle Paras.

In the last Assembly polls in October 2020, Chirag had fielded candidates against JDU despite being in NDA and helped the BJP become the number one party in Bihar. Chirag later voiced anguish over BJP's role after the rebellion by his uncle Paras, who had earlier opposed the decision of LJP to contest against JDU.

"Politics is indeed discussed when politicians meet," was the cryptic reply of Rajak when asked what transpired in his meeting with Chirag. He nevertheless asserted that in the interest of backward classes and scheduled castes (Dalits), leaders from the Opposition parties should join hands against the BJP.