On Nitish turf, Chirag set to sharpen ‘new leadership' pitch, step up ‘Bahujan outreach'
Barely three weeks after Union minister Chirag Paswan stirred Bihar politics by announcing that he would contest in the upcoming state Assembly polls, the LJP (Ram Vilas) president is going to step up pressure on ally JD (U) by holding a rally in Rajgir – in Nalanda district, the home turf of Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar – on Sunday.
The LJP (RV) has dubbed its Rajgir meeting 'Bahujan sankalp samagam', where Chirag would focus on 'Bahujan' and 'nav netritva' (new leadership) in a bid to expand his party's base beyond Paswans – the Scheduled Caste (SC) group to which he belongs – to other Bahujan communities.
While both Nitish and Chirag are key allies of the BJP-led NDA, their relations have been strained, with the LJP(RV) chief now positioning himself for a larger role in Bihar politics.
For the last couple of months, the LJP (RV) has engaged in posturings in what has been seen as its bid to get a sizeable number of seats to contest in the Assembly polls due in October-November this year.
While senior partners, BJP and JD(U), are likely to contest from about 100 seats each in the elections to the 243-member House, the LJP (RV) and other junior NDA allies – including Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha – have also been attempting to claim larger shares in seat-sharing.
In the Lok Sabha polls, the LJP(RV) had won five seats out of five it was allotted by the NDA out of the state's 40 seats. For the Assembly polls, the NDA leadership has yet to kickstart the seat-sharing negotiations among its allies.
Chirag, 42, now clearly seems to be looking to take centrestage in Bihar politics with his party calling for a 'new leadership' in the state.
At the LJP(RV)'s June 8 rally in Arah, Chirag had announced that he would contest the 'Assembly polls from any seat people would want him to contest from'. At the Rajgir meeting, he is expected to push for 'Bihar's leadership for Bahujans', especially for the SCs which account for 19.65% of the state's population. Paswans make up about 5.33% of the state's population.
The LJP (RV)'s Jamui MP Arun Bharti, who is also Chirag's brother-in-law, said, in a social media post, on the eve of the Rajgir event: 'Though Bahujan samaj has a huge population, it has been kept out from leadership role. The social group which is the biggest was shown/ treated as the smallest one. But, not any longer. From land of Rajgir, we are going to make an important announcement – Bahujan will no longer be a crowd but a voice. They will not just vote but lead. Bahujam Sankalp Samagam is not a cultural event but a political clarion call. We are gathering at Rajgir to fight on our terms, choose our leadership. Our leader will be Chirag Paswan.'
Of late, Chirag has entrusted Bharti to play a major role in his party for working out its poll strategies.
After the LJP(RV) chief's decision to take the plunge in the Assembly polls, RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Yadav asked him to clear the air if he 'wanted to become Bihar CM'. 'Let him (Chirag) say it clearly, it will give clarity to NDA and INDIA bloc,' Tejashwi said.
An LJP (RV) leader told The Indian Express: 'As of now, we are engaging in
intense posturings to get a good number of seats for the upcoming polls. We also want winnable seats. With five MPs, we are the BJP's third most important NDA ally at the Centre. If a party like HAM (S) with one MP can ask for 40 seats, how many should we ask for with that calculation'.
In the 2020 Assembly polls in which the then undivided LJP had contested alone, the party had got 5.66% votes while winning just one seat.
On the LJP(RV)'s 'Bahujan outreach and new leadership call', another party leader said: 'Bihar politics has been undergoing a churn and a new political order will emerge sooner or later. Chirag will play a key role in that process, more so with Nitish Kumar seen to be walking into the sunset of his long political innings.'
Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
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