The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday allotted new party names and symbols to Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, days after the poll panel barred Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) factions from using the party name and symbol.
In separate letters to Paswan and Paras, the EC announced that the Lok Janshakti Party faction led by Chirag Paswan will be called LJP (Ram Vilas) and have the symbol of a helicopter, while the Pashupati Kumar Paras faction will be called Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party and will have the symbol of a sewing machine.
“Having considered the request, the Commission has allotted the name Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) for your group and has allotted the helicopter as the symbol to be allotted to the candidate set up, if any, by your group in the current by-election,” read a directive issued by the EC to Chirag.
In another order issued to Paras, the EC said, “Having considered your request, the Commission has allotted the name Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party for your group and has allotted the symbol ‘Sewing Machine’ to be allotted to the candidate set up, if any, by your group in the current by-election.”
The names and symbols have been allotted to both the parties to contest the upcoming bypolls to two assembly seats in Bihar. The elections will be held on October 30.
In an interim order on October 2, the EC had asked Paswan and Paras to choose interim names and symbols for the bye-polls by 1 pm on Monday. It had barred both the factions from using the name of LJP or its symbol “bungalow’, till the dispute is resolved. It also directed both the factions to submit documents supporting their claim to represent the party by November 5. The poll body has yet to pass an order on which faction to retain the original LJP symbol.
Both Chirag and his uncle Paras had a few months back parted ways amid a dispute over the running of the party and are fighting for the right to use the LJP name and its symbol. In June, the Lok Janshakti Party had plunged into a crisis after five of its six Lok Sabha MPs rebelled against Chirag. The rebel MPs had told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they have chosen Paras as the party’s leader in Parliament. The development, effectively a coup against Chirag, came less than a year after his father and former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan died in October. He was the founder of the Lok Janshakti Party.
After Birla named Paras as the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party in the Lok Sabha, Chirag had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the move.
The LJP was formed by former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in 2000. Paswan, a heavyweight leader in Bihar politics, passed away in October 2020.