LJP working committee removes Chirag Paswan as party chief
In a parallel meeting held at Paswan’s residence, all the five MPs who revolted against him were removed from the party
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national working committee at an emergency meeting on Tuesday removed Jamui MP Chirag Paswan from the party national president’s post. The meeting was held at party MP and newly-elected LJP parliamentary party leader and Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras’s residence in New Delhi.
In a parallel meeting held at Paswan’s residence, the five rebel MPs were removed from the party. “A national executive meeting was held where the decision [to remove all the five MPs from the party] was taken,” party leader Raju Tiwari said. “There is a process of doing things in a party. This [the rebellion] is betrayal,” he said.
Late on Monday evening, the Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notification recognising Paras as the leader of the LJP parliamentary party. This came a day after five of the six party MPs informed Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they had unanimously elected Paras as LJP’s parliamentary party leader.
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The working committee also decided to make senior party vice-president Suraj Singh alias Suraj Bhan the national working president and authorised him to convene a meeting of party’s national council meeting within five days to elect a new national president.
Sources close to Paras said that the national council meeting, likely to take place in Patna, may make the MP the national president by amending the party’s constitution which favours one man one post.
Meanwhile, after failing to meet his uncle Paras and cousin and Samastipur MP Prince Raj on Monday, Paswan reportedly left a letter behind, offering a compromise by making his mother Reena Paswan the national president.
On Tuesday, he tweeted that he tried his best to keep the party together, sharing a letter he wrote to Pashupati Paras on March 29 this year where he urged his uncle to take responsibility of keeping the party united like his late father Ram Vilas Paswan. He also likened the party to a mother who should not be betrayed.
Paswan assumed charge of LJP after his father died weeks before the Bihar elections last year.