If PM, BJP doesn’t stand by me now in crisis, then I am independent to take any decision: Chirag Paswan

LJP leader and son of party founder late Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag Paswan now faces the battle of keeping the party with him and to counter the challenge from his uncle. The two-time MP spoke to TOI about his plans and BJP’s silence.
You are taking out an Ashirvaad Yatra next month, something similar to what Jaganmohan Reddy did. There are three more years for the next Lok Sabha and more than four years for the Bihar Assembly election.How will you sustain this campaign for 3-4 years?
I am not doing this yatra for the election. I am starting this journey on my father’s birth anniversary. We got more than 25 lakh votes in the last assembly election. This was about 6% of all votes even when we put candidates only in 135 seats. If we had contested from all seats, we would have got over 10% votes. I should have gone to people to thank them and seek their blessings. But because of Covid-19 and due to my bad health, I could not do that. Now I need to seek the blessings of people when my own family members, my uncle, have gone against me and backstabbed me when I was ill.
But how will you sustain this journey for 3-4 years?
What else is my job, except building and strengthening the party? I will take out several tours to be with our people and supporters. We had taken a conscious decision to go all alone in the assembly polls to spread our presence across the state. Earlier our party had presence only in patches. Now we need to build it and take it to every part of Bihar.
Your uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras has said he would be happy to participate in the yatra, if you invite him. Will you send him an invitation?
How can I ask anything from those who have betrayed the faith and ideals of my father soon after his death? They did not even wait for the first death anniversary when everyone in the family came together to observe that day. My father’s soul will not be in peace to see the manner in which they backstabbed the family. I tried to speak to my uncle several times and even a day after he led a delegation to Lok Sabha Speaker to stake claim for the party leadership in the House. But he did not meet me. If he wanted to become the party leader of Lok Sabha or Central minister, I would have written to the Speaker and PM happily for him. I would have made him party president, if he had mentioned it to me once. They have told the Election Commission that the party president’s post was lying vacant after my father’s death. But they know I was elected as national president in 2019 and my uncle had himself proposed my name. When they have betrayed me now, how can I believe or expect anything from them?
Had your father ever alerted you about your uncle and about his ambition?
No, my father never shared any such thing with me. He always treated his younger brothers as his sons and always taught me to keep everyone together. My uncle was always unhappy with me since I started playing an active role in the party and he had some issue or the other with me. But I always regarded him as my father. That’s what we learnt in the family. Several times I did not go to Patna feeling he may not like it. When I made my brother (Prince Raj) Bihar party president, my father was very happy. But my uncle was not happy. My father was visionary and had said he wanted to pass the baton of the party to the next generation. He made me national president and my aim was that Prince as state president would learn from Parasji.
But your uncle has alleged you replaced him as state LJP president. What was the reason?
The need was felt before the Bihar election in 2020. We needed a state president who could travel across the state, touring all districts, blocks and constituencies. We could not spread the party’s base sitting in Patna. With due respect, my uncle had hardly travelled during his 15-year tenure as president. He had not even gone campaigning in assembly constituencies citing some reason or other. He was not happy with the party's decision to go with NDA in 2014. He wanted us to go with the UPA. In 2020, in an online meeting he had stood by the party’s decision to go solo in the assembly election. I don’t know and can’t understand why he changes his heart in hours.
There were big leaders in LJP when your father was alive. Some have left the party. How do you see the challenge ahead?
A political party is not about MLAs and MPs. It applies to all parties. They come and go. The organization and its structure are important. Out of 75 national executive committee members, only nine have left including the five MPs. That faction held a national executive committee meeting, but they had no legitimacy to call such a meeting. The meeting was unconstitutional. Please see the past attendance of attendees in the national executive committee meeting and compare them with the list we put out after our meeting.
The issue of who represents the real LJP has gone to the Election Commission. What is your sense, will you win this battle?
We have placed all the details before the EC. They have all the details of the executive committee members and our party constitution. Since I was elected in 2019, I remain party president till 2024. We had informed the 2019 decision to the EC. Our constitution specifies who can call a meeting. The party is governed by its constitution.
You raised an objection to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision to recognise Paras as party leader in the House. How confident are you about the Speaker reviewing the decision?
I am 100% confident that I will get justice. I have submitted all details to the Speaker. Our party constitution says the central parliamentary board can decide about the leader of the House in parliament or assembly. During our discussion, the Speaker said the chief whip acts as the communicator between his office and the. But the role of chief whip comes to play when the House is in session. The parliamentary provisions also specify that the party can choose its leader and inform the Speaker. The Speaker might not be aware of the LJP’s constitution. But since I was the party president and I am also a sitting MP, he should have spoken to me before taking any decision. If I don’t get justice, I will go to court. I feel it should not take more than one hearing to get a decision in my favour. I am clear about the legal provisions.
Amid all these claims and counter-claims your uncle says he had told your mother that he won’t visit your house till your advisor Saurabh Pandey is there. What’s your reaction?
If he had any issue like this, he should have told me. In politics we need to take different types of people together and there can be differences of opinion. I have a difference of opinion with many who are close to my uncle. But how can he justify taking a drastic decision against me, whom he treated as a son simply because he is unhappy with one person? How could he try to remove me from the party president’s post for this reason? How could he stop talking to us for months? Would he have done this to his own son, if he was unhappy? Would he have gone to the Speaker with MPs, if his son was in my place?
There are talks that a section of BJP leaders are also behind the coup in LJP. What’s your view?
When my own have betrayed me, how can I blame others. My uncle has not only betrayed me but also my father and his ideology. On September 18, just two days before my father was put on ventilator, he had told me not to go with Nitish Kumar in my life. The manner in which he humiliated my father for the Rajya Sabha seat is known to all. My father always fought for Dalits and Maha Dalits. The Bihar CM divided Dalit and Mahadalit only to finish Ram Vilas Paswan. He ensured Paswans remain as Dalits in Bihar only to finish my father's political life. When my uncle praises Nitish Kumar and goes with him, he betrays my father’s ideology.
There are talks that you may ally with RJD in Bihar. But you maintain you are in NDA in Centre. What’s your position?
Now I am with the BJP. In the last assembly polls I had said I have full faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I am his Hanuman. But if Hanuman is getting killed and Ram is only watching this, then what’s the significance of Hanuman and Ram? If he doesn’t protect me when I need him, then what can I say. We have always stood by the PM and BJP since 2014 when every ally was deserting him. Nitish Kumar had pulled out over the issue of Modi’s leadership. We supported the BJP and the PM whether it was abrogation of Article 370, Ram Mandir, CAA, NRC and Triple Talaq without compromising our ideology. Will Nitish Kumar implement CAA and NRC which the Union minister wants to roll out. When we have stood by them in tough times, now they need to decide whether they are with us or not. If they are not ready to stand by me now, then I am free and independent to take any decision.
Has anyone from the opposition front talked to you in recent days?
A: Leaders from almost all opposition parties and even some from BJP have talked to me since my father passed away. Leaders from opposition parties have maintained that some of our own leaders have ditched us and they say people in the state are fully with us.