For Chirag Paswan, who overcame several setbacks and embarrassments in his fight for the legacy of his father, the late Ram Vilas Paswan, the Bihar poll performance is poetic justice.
’s ‘Hanuman’, is the newest star on Bihar’s political horizon. At 43, he also has age on his side as the state looks for young faces.
Five years after Paswan Senior, the stalwart Dalit leader of the state, died, and despite the split in the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) following it, Chirag has now taken his LJP (RV) faction close to the party’s best-ever performance.
Before this, the LJP’s highest tally was in February 2005, when it won 29 seats. That election resulted in a hung House, and in the re-poll later that year, the LJP got only 10 constituencies. This had been its highest number of seats after that – till now.
In fact, the NDA’s decision to give 29 seats to the LJP (RV) this time had raised eyebrows. With the results, Chirag has proved that the BJP leadership was right in placing its faith in him.
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While Chirag joined politics while Ram Vilas was still around, it has not been smooth going for the leader. One lasting image was his forceful eviction from his late father’s official residence, which he wanted to turn into a memorial. Politically, he faced a pushback from his two uncles.
But Chirag did not let the fact that the BJP initially favoured his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in the succession battle, making him a Union minister, deter him. Or that he was kept out of the NDA in the 2020 Bihar Assembly election alliance, at the insistence of the JD(U) – though the charge lingers that the BJP did this deliberately, and unofficially backed the LJP to cut down the JD(U).
After the LJP split, the Election Commission of India froze the name, once given by Ram Vilas, and its symbol, forcing Chirag to pick the name LJP (Ram Vilas ) for his faction. The Paras group called itself the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party; at last count, it was struggling to even reach 1% of the vote share in the Bihar polls.
Chirag played his cards well in declaring loyalty to the BJP, even while coming out against it if needed, particularly when it came to minority issues – portraying the image of a young leader with a clear vision for the development of the state, who knew his mind.
The BJP acknowledged him as the heir apparent of his father’s legacy when it inducted him as a Union Minister after Modi returned to power last year.
In the run-up to the Bihar elections, however, Chirag more than once indicated that he would like to return to Bihar politics, and that he was very much open to the chief minister’s post.
Declaring that he had joined politics “just for Bihar and Biharis”, Chirag told The Indian Express in an interview during the election campaign: “I was working in Mumbai and I was pretty settled there. Had I given a few more years to Bollywood, I would have made a decent name for myself. The only reason I came to politics was that I had witnessed from close quarters how Biharis were treated in other parts of the country, how they were humiliated… The name Bihari itself was made into a gaali… Being a three-time MP, I realised that sitting in Delhi I cannot do much for Biharis and I need to go back to the state.”
Declaring that he was working on “a vision document which is for Bihar First and Biharis First”, Chirag said he had identified the issues he needed to work on – “to create job opportunities, increase revenues, improve health facilities, better education infrastructure and develop the state as a whole”.
BJP leaders praised Chirag for being “mature and sharp” in his negotiations for seat-sharing, leading to 29 constituencies for him. During the campaign too, BJP leaders had noted the good crowds at public meetings held by the LJP (RV) chief. At 173, a figure shared by his party, Chirag addressed the most rallies of all the campaigners in the state.
The number of meetings held by Chirag also showed that he was among the five most-popular campaigners in Bihar for the NDA, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and JD(U) supremo and CM Nitish Kumar. “Chirag’s is a face who can emerge cutting across caste and class lines in the future. He is young, charismatic and can capture the imagination of an aspiring population,” said a BJP leader.
Chirag himself called it his own ‘MY’ formula – Mahila and Youth support – as contrast to the RJD’s Muslim-Yadav ‘MY’ combination.
This will be a matter of concern for the RJD as its biggest gamble is its leader Tejashwi Yadav’s youth image. At 36, he has been pitching unemployment and development as issues, and putting a distance between him and his father Lalu Prasad’s reign which, while noted for its work on social justice, continues to be associated with lawlessness.
Chirag’s presence also offset, to an extent, the Mahagathbandhan’s campaign regarding Nitish’s failing health, which suggested that the NDA did not have a leader in control. The absence of a strong state leadership in the BJP camp also enhances the importance of Chirag for the NDA.
Chirag rubbishes the claims that the BJP has used him in its political one-upmanship with Nitish. In the 2020 elections that first fanned these claims, the then united LJP had fielded upper caste candidates against the JD(U), even while backing the BJP. The JD(U)’s tally of 43 seats from the 115 it contested was attributed to this, even as the BJP bagged 74 of the 110 seats.
Denying he acted at the behest of the BJP, Chirag told The Indian Express: “This is what the Mahagathbandan does. They are an alliance that cannot even find common ground for basic seat-sharing and they are taking a dig at us. It’s a narrative they want to create and spread that there is a divide between NDA allies. Because they know when we are together, they cannot defeat us.”
On Friday, the 43-year-old was having the last laugh.