Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) president Pashupati Kumar Paras on Saturday declared that his party will contest the November Bihar Assembly elections alone, making it clear that he was forced to take the decision after his attempts to join the Opposition Mahagathbandhan could not succeed.
“I made significant efforts to forge an alliance with the Mahagathbandhan this time, but it didn’t materialise,” he said, announcing a list of the RLJP’s 33 candidates.
Paras, who had represented Alauli (Khagaria) seat seven times between 1977 and 2010, had hoped to get at least three seats from the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, which was however not convinced by his political standing.
A former Union minister, Paras, younger brother of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) founder Ram Vilas Paswan, had severed his relations with the BJP-led NDA months after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which his party was not given a single ticket to contest in Bihar. Paras, who had been insisting on getting at least his sitting Hajipur seat, was asked not to contest and just support the NDA. Instead, the NDA gave five tickets to his rival and LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, Paswan’s son, whose party won all of them, consolidating his influence in the ruling alliance.
Paras said his RLJP is prepared to fight independently in the Bihar polls. “Even in 2005, our party won 29 seats in Bihar contesting alone,” he said, referring to the then Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP’s performance in the state Assembly polls.
“Our party is spread across Bihar and is strongly backed by Dalit Sena. In the first phase, we have fielded 33 candidates, all of whom are our party workers, not outsiders,” he said.
The RLJP’s candidate list seeks to balance caste and gender equations. Paras said that apart from the reserved constituencies, eight candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SCs) have been fielded from general seats, adding that six women have also been given tickets. “We have taken care of Bihar’s social composition. I am confident we will perform well,” he claimed.
Among the prominent nominees in the RLJP’s first list are Paras’s son Yashraj Paswan fielded from Alouli (SC) seat, Dharmendra Ram from Buxar, and Divya Bharti from Arwal.
Having been left out of both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan camps, Paras expressed his resentment over Bihar’s prevailing political situation, especially criticising the Opposition alliance over its “flawed seat-sharing arrangements”.
“This is unfortunate for Bihar. A government based on social justice could have been formed, but obstacles were created. When you have two (Mahagathbandhan) alliance candidates filing nominations from the same seat, it clearly reflects a poor seat-sharing strategy and coordination,” he said, citing examples of “friendly fights” among Mahagathbandhan allies in various constituencies including Lalganj, Hajipur and Vaishali.
Following the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan in October 2020, the Chirag-led LJP had chosen to contest the Bihar Assembly polls later that year alone, breaking ranks with the NDA. While the party won only one seat, it damaged the JD(U)’s prospects in several constituencies.
The LJP’s poor showing deepened its internal rifts. In June 2021, the Paras-led party faction rebelled against Chirag’s leadership and ousted him. In response, Chirag launched his LJP (RV), challenging his uncle’s claim to his father’s legacy.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Chirag returned to the NDA fold, which preferred to play ball with him instead of Paras. After achieving a 100 per cent strike rate in the elections, Chirag re-emerged as a significant player in Bihar politics, getting inducted into the Narendra Modi ministry 3.0. He also managed to get 29 seats for his party in the NDA’s seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Assembly polls in the face of resistance from some allies.
In sharp contrast, Paras has found himself increasingly isolated, with his pivot towards the Mahagathbandhan also failing to fructify. Despite his claims to be Ram Vilas Paswan’s political successor, Paras has struggled to match Chirag’s political capital, media visibility, or electoral performance.
