Patna: LJP-Ram Vilas Paswan leader Chirag Paswan attracted the attention of everyone at the NDA meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday as he touched the feet of PM Narendra Modi and his estranged uncle Pasupati Kumar Paras.
Just before that meeting, Chirag Paswan and Pasupati Kumar Paras were taking on each other and laying claim to fight from the Hajipur parliamentary constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. After the meeting, both the leaders are mum on the question and everyone is curious about what happened in the last one day that they have gone quiet.
The real truth is the BJP, which is eyeing the 6 per cent Paswan voters of Bihar and do not want to lose even 1 per cent of them. It knows that Chirag Paswan has the capacity to shift Paswan voters to the NDA and proved his popularity during bypolls to Mokama, Gopalganj, Kurhani, and Munger.
Paras may not be as effective as Chirag Paswan is at the moment but some sections of Paswan community are with him as well.
Hence, the BJP does not want to keep away from any one of them.
In case Paras is ignored, he may straight away goes to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and makes Mahagathbandhan stronger. As per sources, the JD-U was behind the scenes when the LJP split.
The BJP is trying to negotiate with Chirag Paswan and Paras, and in case, Chirag Paswan refuses to leave Hajipur, Paras will be given another safe seat in Bihar where the chances of winning the seat would be higher.
(IANS)