I have no reason to ally with the BJP, neither do they have a vision nor leaders in Bihar, Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) President Chirag Paswan said in an interview to The Hindu, days after the reconfiguration of the political equation in Bihar. He also predicted an early demise of the latest Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance forcing midterm assembly polls.
While he ruled out allying with the BJP, Mr. Paswan said that his party won’t be contesting the next round of assembly and Lok Sabha elections alone, hinting at a possible alliance with the RJD, in the event of an early divorce between JD(U)-RJD.
Mr. Paswan as the national President of Lok Janshakti Party in the 2020 assembly elections had walked out of the NDA, raising a rebellion against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. But now that Mr. Kumar has walked out of the NDA he is not too keen to return. “All these years, BJP has worked as a subservient partner to the JD(U) in Bihar. Irrespective of their electoral strength they genuflect in front of Nitish Kumar and offer him the Chief Minister’s chair on a platter. Why? Because the BJP in the state has no leadership and no vision!
In Bihar assembly elections 2020, the LJP managed only 5.66 percent vote share winning a single seat. The lone MLA who won under the LJP symbol soon switched sides to the JD(U). Now, with a split in the party, Mr. Paswan who wants to position himself as the political heir of his father Ramvilas Paswan does not want to repeat the 2020 strategy.
“My party will be contesting the elections in an alliance, but we shall cross the bridge when we come to it. I am the son of Mausam Vigyanik (Ramvilas Paswan was referred to as the weathervane of Indian Politics) so I can foresee a few things (laughs). To be able to predict the future one must look at the past. In the last eight years, the Chief Minister has thrice changed his alliances and therefore I do not see the present one surviving for long. I won’t be surprised if the political equations in Bihar change again by the 2024 general elections,” he added.
Excerpts from the interview
Days after Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar returned to the Bihar Chief Minister’s chair for the eighth time — this time forming a government in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) — Mr. Paswan spoke to The Hindu on speculation over his return to the National Democratic Alliance and his political predictions for the State.
In 2020, you walked out of the BJP-led NDA, primarily opposing Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar. Now that he is out of the NDA, will you return to it [the NDA]?
Of course not! The reason for leaving NDA was not the person, Nitish Kumar — it was his ideology and his working style. He has been Bihar’s Chief Minister for nearly two decades but his much-touted agenda of ’ saat nishchey‘ or ‘seven promises’ is just about providing basic necessities to the State, which the government is anyway obliged to do. Unfortunately, in Bihar, the government may change but the Chief Minister remains the same. Every time he [Mr. Kumar] resigns, he returns to the chair with a different Deputy Chief Minister.
But what about the BJP? Are you ready to work with them, considering you declared yourself to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Hanuman’?
I will always have an emotional connection with Modi- ji because when my father was unwell, he stood by me. He would call me twice a day to enquire about his health and our well-being. But let me clear the air about the ‘Hanuman’ comment. During the campaign for the Bihar 2020 elections, some JD(U) leaders started complaining that I was using the PM’s photographs even though I was out of the NDA — to which I said that I do not need to put up his photographs because he’s there in my heart. That was the root of the ‘Hanuman’ label.
But, politically, what stops you from cosying up to the BJP?
Because the BJP does not have a vision for my State. All these years, they have worked as a subservient partner to the JD(U) in Bihar. Irrespective of their electoral strength, they genuflect in front of Nitish Kumar and offer him the Chief Minister’s chair on a platter. Why? Because the BJP in the State has no leadership and no vision!
Given the circumstances under which the LJP split — the way in which you had to vacate the bungalow on 12, Janpath, where your family had lived for three decades; and the accommodation of your uncle Pashupati Nath Paras but not you in the Union Cabinet — are you feeling bitter about the BJP?
I am not bitter about the BJP. But I won’t say that I have a capacious heart, and that I can forget and forgive everything. Of course, it hurt when these events happened. If they had wanted, they could have handled it in a better manner, which was not done.
How do you reconcile your devotion to Mr. Modi with his remarks against nepotism and dynastic politics in his Independence Day address?
I believe that the people of the country are the final arbitrators — if you have the potential, they will accept you, or you will be rejected outright. My birth is my fortune, but it alone won’t dictate my fate. In fact, people like me have a different struggle. I don’t have to compete with anyone else but my father. I will always be appraised against Ramvilas Paswan. They say Ramvilas- ji was affable person, but Chirag is arrogant. That he was accessible, and I am hard to reach. Every day you have to fight your father’s shadow to prove yourself.
You claim that you will not ally with the BJP. So, are you going to contest the next round of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections alone?
No. My party will be contesting the elections in an alliance, but we shall cross the bridge when we come to it. I am the son of the ‘ mausam vigyanik’ [Ramvilas Paswan was referred to as the weathervane of Indian politics], so I can foresee a few things (laughs). To be able to predict the future, one must look at the past. In the last eight years, the Chief Minister [Nitish Kumar] has thrice changed his alliances and therefore, I do not see the present one surviving for long. I won’t be surprised if the political equations in Bihar change by the 2024 General elections. And I believe that we will soon have mid-term Assembly elections in Bihar, it could happen even before the 2024 polls, or they will be held simultaneously. My predictions are based on a simple fact — my younger brother, [Deputy CM] Tejashwi [Yadav], needs just two more seats in the Bihar Assembly to be the Chief Minister. The day he [Mr. Yadav] starts asserting himself, the Chief Minister [Mr. Kumar] will not like it. He [Mr. Kumar] will start feeling ‘humiliated’, ‘suffocated’, and so on. These symptoms are going to return very soon.
