On a day marked by the escalating political turmoil in Bihar, which gained momentum towards a change leading to the cancellation of all scheduled events for Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, Chirag Paswan, the president of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), a major player in Bihar politics, met with Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda. The purpose of the meeting was to seek assurance that Chirag Paswan's presence in the BJP-led NDA in Bihar would not be diminished in light of the return of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar.
Shah's scheduled visit to Telangana on Sunday and his late-evening arrival in Kolkata for a two-day political tour of West Bengal has been cancelled, according to government sources. Union Tourism Minister and BJP State president G Kishan Reddy said that Shah’s tour was cancelled due to emergency work. During his visit, Shah was supposed to hold meetings with party leaders and functionaries in Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, and Hyderabad.
“We have now been informed from New Delhi that the Home Minister will not be able to visit Bengal this time,” said a member of the West Bengal BJP State committee. The committee member added that Shah was originally scheduled to arrive in Kolkata on Sunday, with a packed itinerary for two days.
He was scheduled to have an organisational meeting at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district to discuss the organisation affairs in the four Lok Sabha constituencies in the district.
In Kolkata, he was scheduled to hold an organisation meeting with the top State BJP leadership to take stock of the preparations of forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
During the tour he also was scheduled to hold a public rally at Mecheda in East Midnapore, which is the native district of Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Lok Janshakti Party, before the split between Paswan and his uncle Pashupati Nath Paras had fought on six seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Paswan insists that his faction should be given six seats, including Hajipur that his father had held eight times, and where Paras is the incumbent MP. Kumar’s return has put Paswan in a corner, since his politics has been centred around confrontation with the Bihar Chief Minister in the past four years.
He had walked out of the NDA in 2020 Bihar Assembly election and his party fielded several candidates against JD(U).
Speaking to reporters after the meetings with top BJP leaders, Paswan said that his party will take a “final stand” only after Nitish Kumar makes the formal announcement.
“We have shared our concerns, which have become more serious, in view of the events in Patna over the last few days. Both Nadda and Shah have assured that all the issues we have flagged will be dealt with. So far, the situation is positive in the NDA. Our final stand will be clear in the coming days,” he said.
Paswan told media he would first wait to see whether the JDU president joins the BJP-led alliance or not before finalising his party's stand on the matter. Son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan however did not reveal what Shah and Nadda told him about political developments in the state.
Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha who had merged with JDU and again walked out last year, have been politically antagonistic to Nitish Kumar. Sources said BJP has reached out to them in the last few days.
Paswan was a key reason for the JD (U)'s poor show in the 2020 assembly polls and the souring of its relations with the BJP before Kumar snapped ties and allied with the RJD in 2022. BJP allies have the apprehension that Nitsih Kumar's presence in the NDA may reduce their share of seats in the polls while sources said BJP’s strategists suggested that BJP will be able to good riding only on the shoulders of Nitish Kumar.
