'Wrong feedback was given against Parasji to the top BJP leadership in New Delhi by a senior BJP leader, who is also a Union minister from Bihar.'
'He deliberately provided wrong information about the RLJP to the BJP leadership to help Chirag Paswan.'
After the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance denied any seat to its ally Pashupati Kumar Paras's Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party to contest the Lok Sabha election in Bihar, Paras resigned from the Narendra Modi ministry.
His estranged nephew Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party has been given 5 Lok Sabha seats to contest this election.
The BJP has thrown its weight behind Chirag, who is regarded as his late father Ram Vilas Paswan's political successor.
As per the Bihar caste survey, the Paswan community comprises 5.3 percent of Bihar's population.
Ram Vilas Paswan's importance was his capacity to transfer his caste vote to any alliance he joined during his long political career.
"The BJP has backstabbed our party and our leader by not giving any seat to the RLJP," RLJP Chief Spokesperson Sharvan Agarwal, who is considered close to Paras, tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor M I Khan.
What is going to be your party's next move? Will it contest the Lok Sabha elections on its own or join hands with others?
Look, justice was not done to us, in fact injustice was done to us.
Parasji took the right decision by resigning from the Modi Cabinet. Most of the party leaders, workers and supporters were in favour of it.
The BJP has backstabbed our party and our leader by not giving any seat to the RLJP to contest the Lok Sabha elections. The RLJP's 5 MPs supported the NDA and worked to strengthen it.
The NDA decision to totally ignore us in the seat sharing formula was back stabbing the people in the parliamentary constituencies of Hajipur, Samastipur, Nawada, Vaishali and Khagaria.
People of these seats voted for us in the 2019 elections and we won.
Our party has called a meeting of RLJP leaders including party district presidents, block presidents and panchayat level members to discuss and take a final decision to quit the NDA or not. Everything will be known soon.
Our options and doors are open for realignment. We are in touch with Lalu Prasad Yadav and other Mahagathbandhan leaders.
Why did the BJP and NDA ignore RLJP and Paras and instead choose Chirag Paswan?
It was a conspiracy we never expected, that the BJP led NDA would ignore and leave us.
After the LJP split in 2021, all 5 RLJP MPs supported the BJP led NDA government and displayed our full loyalty. The RLJP honestly stood with the BJP and was a loyal ally of the NDA.
Most of the NDA allies in Bihar including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha, former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Chirag Paswan's LJP are Aya-Ram Gaya-Rams. All of them walked out of the NDA time and again and rejoined.
They have been given honour while we were insulted and humiliated.
Those parties who weakened the NDA were rewarded. This will prove disastrous.
In Bihar the ground reality is different. The wrong feedback was given against Parasji to the top BJP leadership in New Delhi by a senior BJP leader, who is also a Union minister from Bihar.
This minister has been conspiring against Parasji for the last one year.
He deliberately provided wrong information about the RLJP to the BJP leadership to help Chirag Paswan.
How is your party preparing for the Lok Sabha elections?
The RLJP will play politics that will heavily damage the NDA in all 40 seats in Bihar. We will not sit silent.
We will work hard to defeat those who campaigned against us.
What about Paras? Will he contest the election from Hajipur against his nephew Chirag Paswan?
One thing is certain and sure: Parasji will contest from Hajipur. People are with Parasji in Hajipur as he was chosen by none other Ram Vilas Paswanji, who was our supreme leader when he was alive, to contest from Hajipur in 2019.
Chirag will be defeated in Hajipur and Parasji will win the seat again.
Chirag should contest from a general parliamentary constituency in place of a reserve constituency because he has been talking against reservation.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
