Chirag Paswan meets Amit Shah ahead of NDA meet, says ‘talks positive’
A senior Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said there was no doubt about Chirag attending the NDA meet, and the dissension between the two factions of the LJP would not come in the way
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP- Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Monday met Union home minister Amit Shah at the latter’s residence amid speculations about his induction in the Union Cabinet, the seat-sharing formula in Bihar for 2024 Lok Sabha elections and his estranged ties with union minister Pashupati Paras, who heads the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Parry (RLJP), ahead of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meet on Tuesday.
Chirag later shared pictures of his meeting with Shah on social media from his Twitter handle. What transpired at the meeting is not known, but Chirag’s meeting with Shah a day before the scheduled NDA meeting is viewed as a positive indication for the BJP. “There was positive discussion on NDA issues with Amit Shah,” Chirag wrote on Twitter.
A senior Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said there was no doubt about Chirag attending the NDA meet, and the dissension between the two factions of the LJP would not come in the way.
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“When the time of seat sharing comes, that will also happen amicably, as NDA is all about ideology, not opportunism, and Chirag has been aligned with it from the very beginning. Tomorrow’s meeting will lay the broad contours of how the NDA would go into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” the BJP leaders said.
Chirag had also held a meeting with party leaders at his Patna residence for consultation on attending the NDA meeting on Tuesday. From there, it emerged that he would stake claim to the 2019 formula his father late Ram Vilas Paswan had in the NDA - six Lok Sabha seats and a Rajya Sabha seat.
The meeting is significant as within the last few days there has been a war of words between Chirag and his uncle Paras over the Hajipur seat, which Ramvilas Paswan had won for a record nine times since 1977.
Paras had won from there in 2019 after Ramvilas decided not to contest, while Chirag had won from Jamui twice in 2014 and 2019.
Post his father’s death, Chirag plans to contest from Hajipur and has also been holding public rallies, but Paras has categorically said that there was no looking beyond the seat he won in 2019 in the presence of his brother Ramvilas Paswan.
Paras also ruled out any merger after Chirag said that many MPs from the RLJP were planning to shift to his party. The speculations increased after Khagaria MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser visited Chirag’s house. Though Kaiser termed it as a courtesy visit, he praised Chirag for working hard in the last couple of years.
“My visit to his house was personal, but it is a fact that he has a bright future. As well-wishers, we always want the two units of the LJP should come together. They are, after all, one family and both must be pained with the split. We always wanted this, but we don’t know what is there between the two leaders,” he added.
Both are in the NDA, and the BJP would also want to see the matter getting resolved early to work out a seat-sharing formula to take on the Grand Alliance (GA). NDA had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 39 of the 40 seats, but now JD-U is with the GA to make the going tougher.
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Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that between the two meetings of the opposition parties, the significant things that happened are the Congress getting into the driver’s seat, Nitish Kumar (Bihar cheif minister) being left stranded and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party splitting to show clear signs of weakening, while the NDA has got stronger with the induction of Jitan Ram Manjhi, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Chirag Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha.
“Just by adding smaller groups from south India, especially eight from the two states where BJP has never been very strong, there will be no impact on the NDA at the national level. The entire premise of opposing the BJP in the name of united opposition will not take them too far before they disintegrate due to glaring contradictions,” he added.
