Amid frequent run-ins with political ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Thursday dismissed speculation about him leaving the NDA after returning from Delhi to Patna, clarifying that he will stay with the alliance as long as the Prime Minister is Narendra Modi.
Paswan also lashed out at the Congress, which last month predicted that the LJP chief would soon walk out of the NDA alliance.
“I don’t know why, in the eagerness to distance me from the NDA, such news is run. Even a small statement is presented in this way. The Congress and RJD alliance wants the situation of 2020 to be recreated. The opposition wants me to separate from the NDA so that their path becomes easier. I have repeatedly said that as long as our alliance’s Prime Minister is Narendra Modi, I cannot even think of leaving the NDA,” the LJP chief said.
With only a few months left for the Bihar Assembly elections, Paswan had earlier announced at a public rally that he would field candidates in all 243 constituencies in the state. However, the LJP chief today refrained from specifying the number of seats his party would contest, citing the need to maintain alliance “decorum.”
“The question of fewer or more seats arises only when talks on seat-sharing happen. Right now, there is no such discussion at all. I understand the decorum of the alliance. I do not wish to publicly comment on how many seats our party wants to contest.”
Earlier this month, sources told India Today TV that the BJP leadership did not take Chirag Paswan’s remarks—particularly on the law-and-order situation in Bihar—”in good taste.”
Last month, Chirag Paswan said he was saddened to support a regime where crime is rising and unchecked.
Paswan said that crime is taking place across the state and the administration is failing to control the situation.
“The administration is completely submissive before the criminals,” Paswan said. “Incidents of murder, robbery, kidnapping, and rape are continuously taking place in Bihar.”
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Inputs from Shubham Nirala