Lone LJP MLA in Bihar Joins Nitish
Chirag Paswan wanted to be the King Maker if not the Chief Minister himself. After taking over the mantle from his father late Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag was One Bihar politician who had been in limelight for much of the last year.
In fact he had Nitish Kumar on tenterhooks through out last year as a potential claimant to Bihar Chief Ministership and a major rivalry the JD(U).
However Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief and two-time MP from Jamui, Chirag Paswan now seems to have been totally marginalized. LJP had snatched a major chunk of the vote bank of JD(U) and reduced it to third-largest party in the Assembly polls with 43 seats – behind RJD’s 75 and BJP’s 74 seats – though the party itself ending with just one MLA. Now the party has vanished from the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
On Tuesday, LJP’s single MLA – Raj Kumar Singh, who won from Matihani, Begusarai – joined JD(U). The LJP now has no member in either state Legislative Council or the Assembly.
While Chirag was seen as fancying his chances of being a Chief Minister candidate and a BJP ally at the expense of JD(U) before the Assembly polls, is now no where. Nitish seems to have taken his revenge.
However like a good seasoned politician Chirag has kept his cool and refrained from reacting on this new development. Though what could be more disturbing to Chirag is BJP also neither reacting nor commenting on JD( U) action. LJP may be feeling that it has been totally ignored.
Everyone had been suggesting that LJP had walked out of NDA in Bihar before the state elections with tacit consent from the saffron party itself. LJP had put up candidates against all 110 seats JD(U) contested and on only five seats against BJP.
However as fate would have it Nitish bounced back as CM. Now it is Chirag who keeps waiting for BJP’s offer to become a Union minister – after all, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held LJP patriarch and Chirag’s late father, Ram Vilas Pswan, in high esteem.
Nitish has managed to keep his hold and his position in state politics intact, with nothing 9n horizon for Chirag’s entry at the Centre. The BJP is not in a hurry to antagonize Nitish any further.
Even the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by death of Shri Ram Vilas went to senior BJP leader and former Bihar deputy CM Sushi Kumar Modi, who himself probably wanted to get promoted from his long deputyship.
Chirag, though is quite cool and playing the game of waiting. May be when BJP gets a break over Nitish and JD(U), Chirag’s fortune may automatically take a turn.
