Over the last few days, amid a brewing political crisis within the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Tejashwi Yadav has raised the possibility of an alliance between the RJD and Chirag Paswan. And while there may be a whole host of issues the two disagree on, they appear to be united in their antagonism towards Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the JD(U).
Recently, Paswan had lost control over the party in the Lok Sabha. Five of the six Lok Janshakti Party MPs in the Lok Sabha joined hands earlier this month to elect his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as the party's leader in the lower house of Parliament. But even as Paswan and those who remain loyal to him launched a fierce counter-attack, Paras made waves after telling reporters that he would resign from the post when he "took oath as a union minister".
In the run-up to the Assembly polls, Paswan had described himself as the 'Hanuman' of PM Modi. Now, the LJP leader is making attempts to reach out to the Prime Minister. "It is not right if Ram remains silent when Hanuman is being killed," he told news agency ANI recently.
While Nitish Kumar has denied the allegation, both Paswan and Yadav appear to hold him responsible for the rift in the LJP. Paswan had also written a letter recently alleging that Kumar was involved in the "political killing" of his father and LJP founder, late Ram Vilas Paswan. He contended that the CM was seeking to do the same with him.
"Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, instead of working for the development of Bihar, is focusing on sabotaging a political party. Everyone knew who has engineered a split in the LJP. Nitish Kumar is directly responsible for it. He was also involved in breaking the LJP in 2005, 2010 and 2020," Yadav said on Wednesday.
But with Paswan slated to launch an Aashirwad Yatra to commemorate his late father's birthday, Yadav has reached out with an olive branch. "Chirag Paswan must now decide whom he wants to stand with those abiding by the Bunch of Thoughts (by RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar) or those for whom the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar is supreme", he said. He contended that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad had "helped Ram Vilas get a Rajya Sabha berth when he had lost his own Lok Sabha seat".
As per an NDTV report, Yadav is also planning to pay tribute to Ram Vilas Paswan on July 5th. While the RJD celebrates this as its foundation day, the report quotes sources to suggest that the celebrations will be preceded by a tribute to the late leader.
(With inputs from agencies)
