New Delhi: Chirag Paswan will hold a national executive meeting in Delhi today. The move comes a day after Paswan, sidelined in his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) after a coup led by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in the national capital.
The Paras faction, however, claims that Paswan cannot hold a party meeting as he is no longer the president of the party.
The LJP has six MPs in the Lok Sabha and five of them have considered Paras as their leader.
The rival faction led by Paras has disbanded all bodies and state units affiliated with the party. While all four other MPs of the faction have been included in the executive, a few of those party office-bearers who switched loyalty to him from Paswan have also been inducted.
Despite a split in the LJP, Chirag, the son of party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, still retains an advantage, according to his supporters. Paswan has claimed that he enjoys the support of more than 90 per cent of the national executive members.
The Paswan vote-bank, which make up six per cent of Bihar's voters, is still firmly with Chirag, according to LJP leaders backing him.
BJP leaders also admit that supporting Chirag Paswan's uncle Paras may prove costly for the party in Bihar. Paswan voters are by and large with Chirag, they say pointing to the feedback they got from Dalit legislators and leaders of the party.
The battle over the party's ownership is likely to be decided in the Election Commission as both groups fight for the legacy of Ram Vilas Paswan, who died last year.
