Patna, May 24 (PTI) Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan on Friday paid a “courtesy visit” to fellow NDA partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U).
Paswan, who has reconciled with the state’s longest-serving CM after having fought him bitterly, which led to a brief rupture in JD(U)’s ties with BJP, told reporters after the meeting that he discussed the campaign for the ongoing elections with Kumar.
“It was a courtesy meeting in a relaxed atmosphere with just two more phases of Lok Sabha polls to go. I have campaigned for JD(U) candidates in many seats. I shared my reading of the situation there and he also enquired how those fighting on my party’s tickets were doing,” said Paswan.
Of the 40 seats in Bihar, the BJP is contesting the lion’s share of 17, followed by JD(U) which has fielded candidates in 16 constituencies while five have gone to the party of Paswan, who himself fought from Hajipur, represented several times by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.
Besides one seat has gone to former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi (Hindustani Awam Morcha) and ex-Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha (Rashtriya Lok Morcha).
Paswan asserted that the NDA will improve upon the performance of 2019 when it had won all but one seat in Bihar and, taking a dig at the opposition, remarked “after the polls are over, they will be back to their diatribe about EVMs”.
When told that RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was breaking into parodies of Bollywood numbers at election rallies, Paswan, who had tried his luck in films before entering politics, expressed bemusement saying “he is like my younger brother. I would like to remind him that you win elections not by such antics but by winning the trust of the people”.
A staunch supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who likens his loyalty towards the leader to Hanuman’s devotion for Lord Ram, Paswan also slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for alleging that “only 22 people” grew rich under the NDA regime which was otherwise marked by rampant unemployment.
“Had my prime minister cared only for a handful, 25 crore people would not have been pulled out of the clutches of poverty. They are a desperate lot as their appeasement politics has been rejected by the people,” alleged Paswan. PTI NAC SOM
