Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras hours after the Election Commission of India freezed his party's symbol amid tussle between his faction and Chirag Paswan's faction, said, "I've only requested Election Commission not to allot the (Lok Janshakti Party) symbol to anyone as the matter is pending in the court."
According to a report, the ECI had earlier said that the “decision will be taken by October 4. It will be between Saturday and Monday".
The nomination for the two assembly by-elections seats in Bihar is in process.
Notably, few days ago, the Chirag Paswan-led faction of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) had written to the Election Commission (EC) stating that Union minister Pashupati Paras’ claims of being elected as the party president are “false” and should be “rejected” within a week or before the notification of the Bihar assembly by-polls for the Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan constituencies.
Ever since the tussle, one faction of the LJP is led by president Paswan and another one by his uncle and Union Cabinet Minister Paras.
Both the Paswan and Paras factions will be fielding candidates in the yet to be announced bypolls, and both have claimed the right to use the party’s name and symbol.
Paswan faction’s letter to EC dated September 23 states that the so-called election that Paras claims made him the party leader does not fulfil the requirement of Rule 15 of the Election Symbol (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
On June 15, Paras, along with four other Lok Sabha MPs, staged a coup against Paswan and declared he did not enjoy the support of the party leaders. They wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that the party’s parliamentary board at a meeting on June 13 decided that Paras will be the parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha.
Four LJP MPs -- Chandan Singh, Veena Devi, Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Prince Raj -- backed Paras as the leader of party's parliamentary board, leaving party national president Chirag Paswan isolated.
On June 16, Paras wrote to the EC that he has been elected as the leader of the parliamentary party and a new president will be elected at a national executive meeting. A day later, Suraj Bhan Singh signing as the returning officer/ acting president informed the poll panel that Paras has been elected as the national president of the party.
