The BJP’s Bihar unit was out in full force in the Capital on Tuesday to convince the central leadership of the mistake it will be committing in ceding seats to Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in the battleground State.

The State unit of the BJP believes that aligning with Paswan’s party would be a “suicidal” move. The central party holds the opposite view. To resolve the contradiction, senior Bihar leaders Sushil Modi, Mangal Pandey, Ashwini Choube, CP Thakur and others were present in Delhi. Choube has already declared that ceding seats to Paswan in a politically critical state like Bihar will harm the BJP.

But the BJP’s central leadership has been over-enthusiastic in welcoming overtures from Paswan, who had quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the wake of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.

He has since been mocking the BJP as a dangai (rioters) party. Paswan’s return to the NDA’s fold would have been the symbolic equivalent of a secular stamp on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

After Modi’s projection as PM last year, the BJP’s partner of 17 years, the Janata Dal (United) had deserted the NDA. JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has openly criticised the BJP’s promotion of a “communal” leader.

So, till late Monday evening, top BJP sources excitedly claimed that the party is ready to part with as many as seven seats to accommodate Paswan. This would satisfy Paswan, who is straining hard to bargain for seats in the opposite United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in Bihar, which has Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Lalu is not ready to give more than three or four seats to Paswan, who wants more.

Paswan is hard-pressed to project his actor son Chirag from Jamui, which the BJP and JD(U) had jointly contested in 2009. JD(U)’s Bhudeo Choudhary is the sitting MP from this seat. Paswan is reportedly keen to field his party MLA Jakir Hussain Khan from the Nawada seat and bahubali (local strongman) Suraj Bhan’s wife from Araria. The BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Singh is the sitting MP from Nawada while the party’s Bhola Singh had won the Araria seat in the previous general election.

The local unit is naturally upset and its various leaders are trying to impress upon party president Rajnath Singh that ceding seats to an “opportunist” like Paswan, who had also lost badly in 2009, is not a politically wise move.

“How does it help us? Besides his opportunism, he has undesirable elements such as Suraj Bhan and Rajan Tewari in his party. What does it do to the BJP’s image to field Suraj Bhan’s wife on its ticket? It is shameful,” said a senior leader from Bihar.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW