Lok Janshankti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan has called a meeting of all party MPs on Wednesday to discuss how to fight the Assembly elections in Bihar.
Paswan has made his discomfiture with the ruling Janata Dal (United), part of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), known. His LJP is also part of the NDA.
The issues LJP has with the JD(U) were raised in the party’s parliamentary board meeting on September 7. It was also decided that a list of 143 candidates will be prepared and sent to the central leadership.
Though he has been critical of the Bihar government’s handling of a number of issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic and law and order in the state, Paswan has maintained that his party will support whoever the BJP backs as the chief ministerial candidate in the polls.
The BJP has already announced that chief minister Nitish Kumar will be the NDA’s choice for the job in the assembly polls.
Paswan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to apprise him about the political situation in Bihar. Paswan said in the letter that people are unhappy with the functioning of the Bihar government which can have impact on assembly poll results.
The LJP has six members in the Lok Sabha from the state and one Rajya Sabha member is its founder and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Bihar has 243 Assembly seats and elections in the state are due and expected in October-November as the tenure of the current Assembly will end by last November this year. The Election Commission has not yet taken a final call on poll dates in Bihar.
