BJP reaches out to Chirag Paswan, asks him to tone down criticism of Nitish government

The Hindu

a day ago

In an effort to prevent history from repeating itself, the senior leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been at pains to ensure that Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader and Union Minister Chirag Paswan refrains from making critical remarks against the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar. However, it has so far seen mixed results.
According to a senior national office-bearer of the BJP, Mr. Paswan has been asked to tone down his criticism of the State government, particularly following his recent remarks on a series of murders in Bihar.
'I feel sad to support a government under which crime is out of control,' Mr. Paswan had said. The remarks did not go down well with Mr. Kumar's party, the Janata Dal(U), which fears that Mr. Paswan might end up splitting NDA votes, as in the 2020 Assembly election. According to one estimate by the JD(U), the party lost at least 12 seats in that election because Mr. Paswan, after breaking away from the NDA, fielded candidates against the JD(U) who made inroads into the NDA votes.
'We have conveyed to Chirag Paswan that he is on a good wicket, he has age, and a significant support base on his side, he should pull together with NDA, there is no need to be isolated within the alliance,' said a BJP leader.
Mr. Paswan, who often refers to himself as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hanuman, or disciple, even when he was not a part of the NDA, has never hidden either his antipathy towards Mr. Kumar and the JD(U) or even his own ambitions. His party's MP Arun Bharti (also Mr. Paswan's brother-in-law) had, in an interview to The Hindu, said that Mr. Paswan was a 'Bahujan leader and LJP(RV) is a Bahujan party', signalling Mr. Paswan's intentions of casting his net wider in terms of communities other than his own Dalit constituency.
Recently, Mr. Paswan's absence from a meeting presided over by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Sitamarhi raised eyebrows, but he later said that this was not deliberate but due to a scheduling conflict. 'We will be reaching out to him again,' said a senior BJP leader.
The BJP assesses that the upcoming Bihar Assembly election has a couple of unpredictable factors — Mr. Kumar's health and the impact of Prashant Kishor and his Jan Suraaj Party. In the highly caste sensitive political landscape of Bihar, the Opposition party workers often refer to Mr. Kishor as 'Prashant Kishor Pandey', underlining his Brahmin lineage. Much will depend on the candidates selected by Mr. Kishor, and if he puts strong candidates, especially in the seats held by the JD(U), the upper caste voters may choose to go with him. In such a scenario, Mr. Paswan's remarks and the perception that the NDA may not be the united house it should be in the run-up to the polls is something that the BJP wants to squash as early as possible.