Nearly three years after breaking away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Chirag Paswan, who heads one faction of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), announced his formal return to the coalition, and said that his party, the LJP (Ramvilas), will be contesting the next Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with the BJP.
“We have taken a formal decision to join the NDA because LJP (Ramvilas) and BJP are natural allies,” Mr. Chirag Paswan said. The announcement came just hours before the NDA meeting of 38 parties at the national capital on Tuesday. According to sources, Mr. Chirag Paswan, who has had meetings with both BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has successfully negotiated six seats that the united LJP had fought in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for his faction.
Mr. Chirag Paswan did not confirm this seat sharing formula, except for underlining that all his concerns had been “positively addressed”. One of his key concerns concerned the Hajipur seat, which he asserted would be fought by the LJP (Ram Vilas). His father won the seat seven times, and his uncle Pashupati Paras, who heads the rival party faction, the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, currently holds the seat. This signals the BJP’s decision to sideline Mr. Paras in favour of his nephew, Mr. Chirag Paswan.
