Reminding Chirag Paswan of how Lalu Prasad had assisted Ram Vilas Paswan with getting named the Rajya Sabha in 2010 when LJD had no MLAs and MP, RJD Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav Wednesday asked LJP leader and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan to go along with him. The RJD leader’s offer has come while Chirag is getting ready to recover lost political ground by launching his Bihar yatra from Hajipur – his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s turf and dissenter uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras’ Lok Sabha electorate – from July 5.
Tejashwi, who got back to Patna from Delhi on Wednesday, said, “It is Chirag who has to decide if he would continue to live with followers of Guru Golwalkar’s ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ or with followers of BR Ambedkar, the maker of Indian Constitution.”
Tejashwi tore into Bihar CM Nitish Kumar without naming JD(U). “There are people who are good at scheming. These people also feign ignorance about political happenings in the state.”
Tejashwi was referring to Nitish Kumar’s comments that he had no information on happenings inside the LJP. “It is because of this ignorance that Bihar has come to such a pass. There has been unemployment and hunger,” said the RJD leader.
“RJD had helped Paswan-ji get nominated to Rajya Sabha in 2010 when LJP had no MPs or MLAs,” he said.
However, until this point Chirag has not reacted to Tejashwi’s comments, the LJP leader has given clear traces of his upsetting with the BJP. Chirag, who censured Nitish Kumar for breaking his party, has additionally accused the BJP for its “silence” and leaving him “in the lurch”.
This comes a day after Paswan had revealed to The Indian Express that in political issues, “never say never”, when inquired as to whether he was currently open to tying with the RJD and Tejashwi Yadav.
A senior RJD leader near Tejashwi Yadav said that “while not immediately”, there was political political logic for the two to meet up. “In the past too, Ram Vilas ji had left the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet because of differences with Modi after 2002. In fact, it was Chirag that supported the BJP completely. If he had wanted to damage the BJP and fought all of Bihar, the results would have been different. So now if he is feeling betrayed, and in Bihar politics cannot happen without alliances eventually, we have worked together in the past,” the leader said.
“Both command authority over their respective votebanks, and have time before the next election cycle… the two leaders and the two core bases have worked together… Paswans and Yadavs are political castes that are vocal, and not antithetical,” the leader said. Asked as to whether Tejashwi and Chirag were in contact, the leader said, “They have a good relationship. Even when Chirag was close to NDA, it isn’t like they didn’t talk at all.”
