A day after walking out of the NDA in Bihar targeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan appealed to people against voting for Kumar's JD(U) and claimed that an alliance of his party and the BJP will come to power in the state after the Assembly polls. In an open letter, Paswan told the voters of Bihar that a vote for the Janata Dal (United) will force the migration of their children tomorrow as he sought their support for his party candidates in the three-phase poll starting October 28.
The LJP on Sunday decided to put up its candidates against the JD(U) citing "ideological differences" with the party to assert that it will not accept Kumar's leadership of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the principal member of the NDA and it has already announced Kumar as the leader of the bloc in the state.
"This is the most decisive moment in the history of the state of Bihar. It is a question of life and death of the 12 crore people of the state and we have no time to lose…. The road ahead is not easy for the LJP but we will fight and win too," Paswan said. All LJP MLAs will work under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.
The 37-year-old leader also made a reference to his ailing father, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who has undergone a heart surgery at a private hospital in Delhi and is expected to remain hospitalised for some time. He spoke of his "Bihar first, Bihari first" vision document and said his father would be proud that his son has stuck to the issue he had raised through it.
Citing his party's differences with the JD(U), Paswan said be it the growing bureaucracy in Bihar, the ruling party's treatment of its allies or its agenda, people's grievances are not being addresses either by the officials or the chief minister.
Paswan said Kumar’s long rule has delivered “nothing” and Bihar will get an actual “double-engine” government, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often spoken about, when a BJP-led dispensation comes to power after the assembly polls. In an interview to PTI, Paswan also refuted suggestions about his own chief ministerial ambitions and asserted that his party wants the BJP to lead the government after the polls, which are scheduled to start from October 28.
He heaped praise on the prime minister and noted that he had in 2013 an option of choosing between him and Kumar, who had then quit the NDA against Modi’s projection as its prime ministerial candidate, and he had chosen the BJP leader over the chief minister. “I have been consistent in my support, belief and admiration for the prime minister since I fought my first election in 2014. It is Nitish Kumar who has been fluctuating in his stand. He joined hands with Lalu Prasad and then joined the NDA in 2017. He keeps thinking as how he can continue to be chief minister rather than working for the state’s development,” he said. Paswan said he never had any belief in Kumar’s leadership.
Kumar has been at the helm all these years because of a lack of alternative, Paswan said and noted that people of the state now have many options to choose from as there are several smaller alliance in the fray. “Let the people of Bihar decide. One thing they have decided that they do not want to see today’s chief minister again at the helm after the polls,” he said.
Asked how he reconciles his support to the BJP with the saffron party’s backing of Kumar, he said every party is free to decide their agenda and he is fine with that. The LJP, he added, had done its best in the February 2005 assembly polls when it had polled more than 12 per cent votes by fighting independently.
His party is now organisationally stronger and has a clearer vision for the state, he said, expressing confidence that people will back it in the seats where it contests. The LJP will not put up candidates against the BJP.
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