LJP worried about Dalit constituency: Congress

Amid indications of a political realignment in Bihar, the Congress on Saturday reached out to Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and cautioned him that his party will sink with the BJP unless he breaks away from the NDA.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil’s remark came a day after Paswan’s party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a key NDA ally, said on Friday that it was running out of patience over the Modi government’s inaction over negating the Supreme Court judgement on the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Bill .

“Not only Paswan-ji, none of the allies is comfortable in the NDA. The message is all the more clear in Bihar that the Modi government is against Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), Extremely Backward Castes (ECB) and Mahadalits. Paswan ji has to do the politics of EBC and Dalit, and so is the case with Upendra Kushwha (RLSP chief and another NDA ally from Bihar). We believe that if they remain with the BJP, they will also sink with the BJP,” Gohil said at the AICC briefing.

A senior party functionary said that the Congress is hopeful that Paswan and Kushwaha will desert the NDA and join the existing alliance in Bihar of Congress-RJD and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha.

LJP’s parliamentary board chairman and Paswan’s son Chirag has also slammed the Modi government over the appointment of Justice A K Goel, who along with Justice U U Lalit delivered the verdict on SC/ST Act, as chairman of the National Green Tribunal and demanded that he be immediately removed.

A functionary in the LJP underlined “our Dalit constituency is in unease. We need to clear their misgivings. They have begun to feel that the NDA government is against them. There is a restlessness in our cadre.”

The remarks were similar to what was said ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when Paswan had deserted the UPA boat and joined the BJP-led alliance. Even then Chirag was in the forefront with the senior Paswan leaving the decision to his son.

“Our main concern is that our Dalit constituency which looks up to us to protect their interests does not feel ignored,” LJP Secretary General Abdul Khaliq said but ruled out LJP walking out of the NDA “till 2019 Lok Sabha polls.”

Gohil, however, evaded a direct reply on whether the Congress would welcome if Paswan deserts NDA saying “Whenever he will come out, we will come out with a comment. At present it is a hypothetical question, I will not comment."

While he was severely critical of BJP over the shelter home sexual exploitation case of Bihar and called the BJP-JDU alliance “opportunistic”, Gohil chose to be soft on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even while demanding a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the case.

“A government and a CM who was known for empowering women and girl child through bicycles, prohibition and reservation preside over a regime where girls in shelter homes are being sexually exploited by the state. All thanks to the Anti-Women mindset of BJP and its leadership,” Gohil said.