DNA Special: Chirag Paswan, LJP, and the bitter truth of family politics

Let's talk about the breakdown of Late Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), in which Paswan's brother Pashupatinath Paras has singled out his son Chirag Paswan by forming a team of all the party's MPs and demanded his removal from the post of leader of party MPs in the Lok Sabha. For political parties based on the same family, this political incident is like a case study.

In the year 2000, Ram Vilas Paswan separated from JDU and formed LJP. But his family roots were not in politics. In the year 1969, he was elected Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bihar. But even after getting such a big post, he did not join the police, but came into politics in the same year and became an MLA for the first time.

Ram Vilas Paswan paved the way for politics for his two brothers, nephew and his son Chirag Paswan before and after the formation of LJP. He and his family were the main branches of the LJP tree until a year ago. But only 248 days after his death, this family seems to be falling apart and Chirag Paswan has become alone in the party.

LJP has 6 MPs including Chirag Paswan in the Lok Sabha, out of which five MPs have now started opposing him. The thing to understand is that the protesting MPs are being led by Chirag Paswan's uncle and Ram Vilas Paswan's brother Pashupatinath Paras. He met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday and demanded to declare him the leader of the party MPs in the House, which was accepted by the Speaker and its notification was also issued.

That is, the dispute was about the fact that Chirag Paswan, the leader of the LJP MPs in the Lok Sabha, should be replaced by his uncle Pashupatinath Paras. A glimpse of it was also seen on Monday. When Chirag Paswan reached the house of Pashupatinath Paras in Delhi, the gate was not opened after seeing his car. Chirag's car was parked outside Paras's house for about 15 minutes but the door of the house did not open for him.

When the controversy and waiting increased, Chirag's car was allowed inside the house. However, it has now come to the fore that at that time Paras was not present at home, so Chirag could not meet him after a while, he left from there. There was no statement from Chirag after him, but his uncle Pashupatinath Paras definitely clarified and said that by doing this he is not breaking the party, but is working to unite.

Now this split in LJP is being seen by connecting it with BJP. So now we will tell you whether all this has been done by BJP or because of BJP everything has happened. This can be understood in two points. 

The first point is the news of expansion in the Union Cabinet. For the last few days, the news is doing the rounds that there may be a change in the Union Cabinet and Chirag Paswan can become a minister. There are also reports that Chirag Paswan had the support of the BJP in Delhi. You will remember that when Bihar had assembly elections last year, Chirag had distanced himself from the BJP-JDU alliance. However, he confined this protest to Nitish Kumar and said that he is not against the BJP. At that time, his decision sent the message that BJP was supporting him. Then Chirag got only one seat in the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections but he had damaged JDU in many seats.

That is, Chirag Paswan dented JDU and BJP became a bigger party than JDU. Although BJP and JDU formed the government together, which is still in power, there are reports that this protest is the main reason for the split in the LJP. And Nitish Kumar does not want Chirag to become a minister in the central government. Perhaps that is why Pashupatinath Paras is getting the support of JDU and he is also talking about the support of BJP, but overall, Chirag Paswan is left alone.

So the first reason for this political development is believed to be stopping Chirag Paswan from joining the central government.

The second point is the political fight between Chirag Paswan and Nitish Kumar in Bihar. You can understand this quarrel from the fact that the lone MLA of LJP who won in the Bihar elections last year, is now in support of JDU. By doing this, JDU has tried to give this message that Chirag Paswan cannot prepare his ground by doing politics against Nitish Kumar. And the big thing is that only Chirag Paswan will be weakened by this clash in the family.

However, there is also a question here whether BJP is with JDU in this?

So there are two things related to this. For BJP, Bihar politics and Delhi politics are completely different. Chirag Paswan may not get support in Bihar but he has the support of the BJP in Delhi.

However, there is another aspect of this news. After this, the angle of politics in Bihar will shift from LJP to Congress. There are 19 Congress MLAs in Bihar and these days, former Bihar Congress President Ashok Chaudhary is in touch with Nitish Kumar. It is also being said that he has the responsibility to break the Congress in Bihar. Another thing is that the way MPs have opposed Chirag Paswan in LJP, a similar picture can be seen in Congress also.

Now, this political incident is like a case study for those parties whose politics is based on the same party. Like Congress. Congress should understand today that just as all LJP MPs are refusing to accept Chirag Paswan as their leader, it is possible that tomorrow in Congress too, it will increase the courage of angry leaders. There are constant reports of the displeasure of many leaders in Congress, but the party wants to solve all the issues on the family template itself.

We have also said many times that if Congress does not show its hand to political astrologers outside the family, the same will happen in the party, which is happening in LJP now.