Opinion: Chirag Paswan Is Harming Bihar Alliance Prospects By Targeting Nitish Kumar
There is a political and social compulsion for Chirag Paswan to distance his party and himself from Nitish Kumar's shadow
Relations cannot remain even normal, forget cordial, between Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United).
With Paswan gradually upping the ante against Kumar, the latest being his virulent criticism of the government on the gang rape of a woman inside an ambulance, there are clear indications of more turmoil within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), ahead of the polls in the state.
Paswan's praise sometime back for Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, a known critic of Nitish Kumar, indicates a determined effort to undermine the stature of the Bihar Chief Minister within the alliance. The question could arise why Paswan is firing at Kumar in the first place and would he go as far as distancing himself from the NDA, which could include loss of a lucrative Ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi government.
There is a political and social compulsion for Paswan to distance his party and himself from Kumar's shadow to survive the rough and tumble of Bihar politics. The vote bank of the two parties are largely identified with their founder-leaders, be it the Dusadhs (Paswans) for LJP or Kurmis for JD (U). Dusadhs being the more prosperous among the Scheduled Caste (Dalit) communities and Kurmis being land-holding Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have often crossed swords in Bihar's social make-up.
In the unfortunate incident, Dusadh farmhands were killed by Kurmi owners. Belchchi falls in Nitish Kumar's home district of Nalanda and he knows well that Dusadh-Kurmi electoral union is next to impossible given the history of social conflict between the two communities. Nitish himself comes from a Kurmi landowning family and enjoys a loyal vote base among his caste voters.
To illustrate his Dusadh community's assertion vis-à-vis the Kurmi Chief Minister, Paswan has submitted a list of 41 seats to the NDA for the upcoming elections, indicating his party's ambitions and possibly pushing for greater influence within the alliance. While on the surface, such moves may have raised questions about the LJP's commitment to the NDA, especially as Paswan's public narrations become increasingly hostile, the question remains whether Paswan would go as far as to risk his ministerial seat or does he have some license for 'autonomous functioning' within the alliance.
There is another dimension to the jigsaw puzzle, whether Kumar would be acceptable to Paswan as the Chief Ministerial face of the alliance. Paswan has so far not explicitly stated his opposition to Kumar's leadership within the NDA but neither has he fully supported it.
In public, so far, Paswan has refrained from commenting on the acceptability of Kumar as an alliance partner, dismissing such questions as hypothetical. However, his increasing public disapproval of the functioning of the Nitish government is adding brick-by-brick to the complexity within the NDA. Meanwhile, voices from within the JD (U) have indicated clearly that the alliance was only happening if Kumar were its face.
Paswan's demand for 40-plus seats has made allocation of tickets within the NDA more intricate. The Chief Minister's party is very clear about being an equal partner in the alliance and getting as many seats as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). LJP's quantum of demand has only added another wheel within the wheels of alliance's internal dynamics.
In the coming months, the alliance partners would have to work out an amicable solution to seat-sharing. In the process of pressure building to bargain for seats, the public narrative too should not become very disruptive, which Paswan currently seems to be doing.
The earlier the conflict is resolved, the better for the ruling alliance, lest the opposition coalition runs away with the initiative.
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First Published:
July 28, 2025, 15:14 IST
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