'Our party expects Modiji will do justice to us'

'We want to strengthen the hands of Modiji and ensure that LJP (Ram Vilas) will contest the polls as an ally of NDA.'

Rajesh Bhatt, the young and charming leader of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Chirag Paswan, is confident that the BJP-led NDA will give decent seats to his party to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

His expectation is based on the loyalty of Chirag Paswan and his party to the BJP and PM Narendra Modi.

The BJP-led NDA is yet to finalise seat-sharing for the 40 seats in Bihar due to differences among its allies.

The BJP's first list of 195 candidates had no candidates from Bihar, a crucial state.

After the re-entry of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar into the NDA, things seem to have changed.

Nitish's Janata Dal-United is not willing to settle for anything less than 16 seats, the number it won in the previous election.

In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the JD-U contested in alliance with the BJP and won 16 seats out of the 17 contested.

The BJP is in trouble with its small allies including the Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas) which won six seats last time, when the party's founder-president Ram Vilas Paswan was alive.

At present the LJP has two factions, LJP (Ram Vilas Paswan) headed by Chirag Paswan, MP from Jamui and son of Ram Vilas Paswan, and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party headed by Pasupati Kumar Paras, younger brother of Ram Vilas Paswan.

Paras is MP from Hajipur and a Union minister, while his nephew Prince Raj is MP from Samastipur.

There are reports that Chirag Paswan is uncomfortable after the re-entry of the JD-U in NDA and unhappy with the BJP over the offer of less seats in the upcoming polls.

Amid this, the opposition Mahagathbandhan led by the RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav has offered more seats to Chirag's party and speculation is rife that he may join hands with it in view of the BJP's reluctance to give the seats demanded by him.

In the previous Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA secured 39 out of 40 parliamentary seats, with the Congress winning only one seat and the RJD failing to secure any, marking a significant setback for the party.

Rajesh Bhatt tells Rediff.com's Senior Contributor M I Khan that the BJP has to do justice to the LJP (Ram Vilas) because its top leadership had assured it. "BJP ko sab kuch tai karna hai. Hamari apeksha ke anurup hoga hum asha kar rahe hai."

There are reports doing the rounds that Chirag Paswan is unhappy over the BJP offering less seats to contest in 2024 Lok Sabha elections and Paswan is not ready to compromise on the party's traditional seats.

LJP (Ram Vilas) is a stable and reliable ally of the BJP-led NDA for years and our leader Chirag Paswan is hundred percent loyal to PM Narendra Modi.

He has proved it time and again. There is no truth that he is unhappy.

But our party wants a decent seat share in NDA to contest the upcoming polls in Bihar.

We had contested six seats in the previous polls and won all; this time again our aim is simple, to win as many seats to contribute to Modi's 400 seats target.

Look, the top leadership of the BJP has given an assurance to our party for six seats. Now it is for the top BJP leadership to fulfill what they assured us. (BJP ke netritva ne ashwashan diya tha aur ashwashan ko nibhana chahiye. BJP ko sab kuch tai karna hai).

How far is it true that the problem of seat-sharing in NDA in Bihar arose after the re-entry of JD-U in the NDA?
Only after that the BJP has been giving more weightage to Kumar and ignoring smaller allies like LJP (Ram Vilas).

We only want our respectful share. Our concern is not who has rejoined NDA or not, we are an old ally. The BJP leadership know it.

But the opposition Mahagathbandhan, which is part of the INDIA bloc, reportedly made an offer of 8 seats to Chirag led LJP (Ram Vilas).

We have no official or formal information about it. We are thankful to the offer if any to us.

On March 7, our party held a daylong meeting to review its poll preparedness for all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

This meeting was to review how far the party was ready for polls on the ground. This will help our allies as well.

Amid political speculation, Chirag Paswan on March 7 met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi and reportedly made it clear that the party wants to contest from its traditional seats and not ready to compromise. Is it true?

Only Chirag ji can tell what he discussed with Nadda ji. It may be about seat-sharing.

LJP (Ram Vilas) is talking to BJP-led NDA on seat-sharing and it will continue till finalised.

We are hopeful and confident to get 6 seats to contest.

Our claim on traditional seats is still the same as it was earlier because these seats are the stronghold of the party since years.

These seats are old party bastions and nursed by party founder Ram Vilas Paswan ji.

Our party has authorised Chirag Paswan ji to decide in the interests of the party and take a final decision.

LJP (Ram Vilas) is staking claim to some seats including Hajipur and Samastipur as its traditional seats, this is the main bone of contention between Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pasupati Kumar Paras, who is Union Minister and head another faction of the party, RLJP (Rashtriya Lok Janshskti Party), and BJP is trying to resolve it. How hopeful is your party, as Paras has repeatedly asserted to contest from Hajipur.

It is not the party, the people of these constituencies want LJP (Ram Vilas) to contest. People of Hajipur want Chirag Paswan ji to contest from Hajipur.

Chirag Paswan ji is keen to contest from Hajipur, which was a traditional seat of his father Ram Vilas Paswan ji for decades.

As far as our party matter, we have given alternative seats as well in the list of 11 seats to the BJP-led NDA for seat-sharing.

These seats include Hajipur, Samastipur, Jamui, Vaishali, Khagaria, Nawada, Sitamarhi, Valmikinagar, Jehanabad, Begusarai and Gopalganj.

A senior leader of LJP (Ram Vilas) has urged PM Modi to do Ram Dharam for Chirag Paswan, who is the Hamunan of Modi. Does the party share his view?

It is his personal view. Our party expect that Modi ji will do justice to us. We want to strengthen the hands of Modiji and ensure that LJP (Ram Vilas) will contest polls as an ally of the NDA.

There is no doubt that Chirag Paswan ji is a Hanuman of Modiji, he always stood by him.

But Chirag Paswan, who is a self-professed Hanuman of Modi, did not shared the dais with him when Modi addressed public meetings in Aurangabad and Begusarai on March 2 and Bettiah on March 6.
This has resulted in speculation that Chirag was trying to put pressure on the BJP.

There is nothing like it. Contrary to reports in a section of the media, these were the official programmes of PM Modiji, not NDA programmes.

Chirag Paswan ji is neither a Union minister nor holds any official post in the central government.

Chirag Paswan ji will jointly campaign in the elections after a formal seat-sharing alliance with the NDA.

He will not miss a single public rally of PM Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the campaign.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com