Amid Bihar nepotism row, a look at LJP's churn: Paswan's brothers to rise of Chirag's brothers-in-law
With RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, recently raking up the issue of nepotism while alleging that several NDA leaders have cornered various plum government positions for their relatives, such as brothers-in-law or sons-in-law, the political ascendancy of some of them has come into focus now.
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) founder and ex-Union minister, late Ram Vilas Paswan, had often drawn criticism for promoting his younger brothers and ex-MPs, Pashupati Kumar Paras and Ramchandra Paswan (who passed away in 2019), in state politics.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the LJP won six seats in Bihar, three of which were bagged by the members of the Paswan family, which included Paswan from Hajipur, son Chirag Paswan from Jamui, and Ramchandra from Samastipur.
Paswan's first wife Rajkumari Devi lives in his ancestral Shaharbanni village in Khagaria. Their two daughters, Asha and Usha, are married, respectively, to Dhananjay alias Mrinal Paswan and Anil alias Sadhu Paswan.
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LJP(Ram Vilas) chief and Union Minister Chirag Paswan and his elder sister Nisha are the children of Paswan and his second wife Reena.
Following Paswan's demise in 2020, Chirag suffered another setback in 2021 when his uncle Pashupati split the LJP with the party's five out of six Lok Sabha MPs joining him. Pashupati became the head of the breakaway party outfit called National Lok Janshakti Party (NLJP) with Chirag taking charge of the LJP(RV).
Subsequently, Chirag started visiting Shaharbanni more frequently to meet his stepmother Rajkumari. When she had been engaged in a property dispute with Pashupati early this year, Chirag made it a point to visit her in the village. This sent out a signal to Pashupati that Chirag was backing his stepmother. Chirag also distanced himself from his cousin Prince Paswan, who had become the Samastipur MP after the death of his father Ramchandra. Prince had also turned a rebel by joining the NLJP, which is now struggling for survival after being snubbed by the NDA.
When Chirag, after his return to the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, looked to contest from his father's traditional constituency Hajipur, he decided to give the LJP(RV) ticket to his brother-in-law Arun Bharti, husband of Nisha, from Jamui – the seat Chirag represented for two terms from 2014 to 2024.
While Chirag clinched his father's bastion Hajipur by a huge margin, Arun Bharti also had a smooth sailing in Jamui.
Bharti, who has an MBA degree, also belongs to a political family with his mother Jyoti having been an MLC twice. Bharti had been working as a business entrepreneur in Delhi till Chirag convinced him to contest the 2024 parliamentary polls.
After the LJP(RV)'s success in the Lok Sabha polls, with the party winning all five seats it contested, and Chirag's induction into the Cabinet of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government 3.0, Bharti became a close confidant of the party chief. Recently, it was Bharti who first said, in a social media post, that the LJP(RV) workers wanted Chirag to contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and that too from a general seat 'so that the message goes out that he is now ready to lead the entire Bihar and not just one section'.
While Chirag kept people guessing, a buzz was created around the LJP (RV)'s projection of 'nav netritva (new leadership)' for Bihar.
On June 8, addressing a rally in Arah, Chirag announced that he would contest the Bihar Assembly polls from a seat that 'people decide for him', ending weeks of speculation over his return to state politics.
LJP(RV) sources said Bharti is likely to play a 'bigger role' in the Bihar polls. 'While Bharti has been asked to keep focusing on his Jamui constituency, he has also been given additional responsibility to strategise for the party for the Assembly polls', said an LJP (RV) leader. On his part, Bharti calls himself a 'soldier of LJP(RV) and Chirag Paswan'.
In the spotlight now, is also Chirag's another brother-in-law Mrinal Paswan, who has been the LJP(RV) national general secretary after having been a government employee in the excise department for 26 years.
As part of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government's recent move to reconstitute several commissions, Mrinal Paswan was appointed as the Bihar State Scheduled Caste Commission's chairperson. Devendra Kumar Manjhi, son-in-law of HAM (S) chief and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, was made this Commission's vice chairperson.
Amid Tejashwi's bid to attack the Nitish government over nepotism, Mrinal said: 'I now hold a responsible position and would not react to any political allegations'. Hailing Chirag, he also said that he would try to redress the grievances of Dalits in his role as the SC panel head.
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