Union Minister Pashupati Paras Resigns after BJP’s Deal With Chirag Paswan’s LJP

Union Minister Pashupati Paras made public his resignation on Tuesday morning and pulled his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party out of the BJP-led national coalition. This decision came just a day after the BJP finalized a seat-sharing agreement with Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, which is the nephew of Mr. Paras.

The BJP-LJP pact, forming part of a broader arrangement for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Bihar, resulted in Mr. Paras’ party being completely sidelined. The RLJP was not allotted any seats, whereas Mr. Paswan’s LJP secured five seats, including the Hajipur constituency, which was won by his uncle in the 2019 election.

Mr. Paras stated, “The NDA deal has been announced. I am grateful to the Prime Minister. My party and I faced injustice. So I am resigning as minister.”

When asked about a potential alliance with the opposition, either with the state-level Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance or the national-level INDIA bloc led by the Congress, Mr. Paras remained non-committal. However, he confirmed that his RLJP would contest the Hajipur seat.

Last week, amid reports of the BJP finalizing its Bihar alliances and his apparent exclusion, Mr. Paras mentioned that his RLJP and its five MPs, including himself, would contest the seats they won in the previous election. He added that the party is free to go anywhere, sparking speculation about a deal within the opposition.

Mr. Paras had won the Hajipur seat five years ago as a member of the then-undivided Lok Janshakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan, who was Chirag Paswan’s father.

The BJP’s decision to align with Chirag Paswan’s faction of the LJP signifies the belief that he now commands complete control over the community vote, with the Paswans constituting approximately six percent of Bihar’s voting population.

However, a potential issue for the BJP might be the strained relationship between Mr. Paswan and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the other major partner in the state alliance.

The Chief Minister holds the LJP responsible for his party’s poor performance in the 2020 Assembly election, following the split within the LJP after Ram Vilas Paswan’s demise. This split, allegedly backed by the BJP, led to a contest between Mr. Paras and Chirag Paswan for control of the LJP, resulting in the latter contesting the state election independently and dividing the votes, which ultimately benefited the BJP.

For the 2024 election, the BJP is set to contest more than half of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, signaling its strengthened position in its relationship with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). In contrast to 2019, where both parties contested an equal number of seats, the BJP now retains 17 seats and allocates 16 to the JDU.