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Union minister Chirag Paswan recalled how his father, Ram Vilas Paswan, was adamantly against aligning with the BJP-led NDA for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan has expressed his intention to contest the Bihar assembly election. (Image: News18)
Ahead of the Bihar assembly election, Union minister Chirag Paswan has opened up about what made his father align with the BJP-led NDA before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Having decided to contest the Bihar elections this time, Chirag recalled how his father, Ram Vilas Paswan, was adamantly against aligning with the BJP in 2014.
“He told me, ‘I will poison myself than go with the BJP’, and I could not say much after that,” Chirag Paswan told Jist during an interview.
What, then, changed Paswan Senior’s mind?
Ram Vilas Paswan, who died in 2020, served multiple terms with the Congress-led UPA under Manmohan Singh and then with Narendra Modi’s BJP-led NDA. He had worked under six Prime Ministers, Chirag said.
He said before Ram Vilas Paswan eventually decided to go with the BJP in 2014, they had tried to meet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for three months but in vain.
“We met respected Sonia Gandhi ji several times during this time, but they (Sonia/Congress) kept saying a meeting will be fixed with Rahul ji (the then Congress president), but that never happened,” Chirag told Jist.
Back then, however, it was more of a return to the NDA fold rather than an alignment because Chirag said his father had earlier broken up with the NDA over the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was chief minister of the state.
A cabinet minister in the NDA government now, Chirag heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). He made the announcement to contest the Bihar polls while addressing a rally in Saran district that borders his Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency.
“People have been asking me whether Chirag Paswan will contest the assembly elections. I want to announce from Saran that yes, Chirag Paswan will contest the elections for the sake of a better future of Bihar,” he said on Sunday (July 6), evoking thunderous applause.
“I will contest the election for the people of Bihar, for my brothers, mothers, for my sisters. We will build a system in Bihar that will truly take the state forward on the path of development. I will realise the dreams of my father and work for ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’. I will live and die for Bihar and its people,” he added.
(With PTI inputs)
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The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d… Read More
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