New Delhi: Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan’s Midas touch remains intact. His party is leading in 19 out of the 29 total seats it contested in the Bihar assembly elections.
The golden run continues since the 2024 general elections when his party had won all five parliamentary seats, a 100 percent strike rate.
In the 2020 Assembly polls, Chirag’s party had contested solo, even though he called himself ‘Modiji’s Hanuman‘ while campaigning against the BJP’s ally, Nitish Kumar. The LJP was instrumental in bringing the JD(U)’s tally down to 43 in the 243-member Assembly. The LJP could win only one seat, though. A part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in this election, the LJP’s performance this time is being watched keenly.
Chirag’s negotiation skills were displayed during the NDA’s seat-sharing talks. After several rounds of discussions with senior BJP and JD(U) leaders, he stood firm on his demands until a deal in his favour was reached. The LJP (Ram Vilas) finally got 29 seats, becoming the second largest junior ally in the alliance. The BJP and JD(U) contested 101 seats each, while smaller allies Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Morcha (RLM) were given only six seats each. Currently, the HAM is leading on 5 seats, and the RLM on 4 seats.
In 2020, the HAM got 5 seats whereas the RLM was not a part of the NDA bloc.
As the LJP won only one of the 137 seats it fought back then, many political experts dismissed Chirag Paswan’s prospects. However, the party had cut Nitish Kumar’s JD(U)’s vote share, reducing its tally from 71 seats in 2015 to just 43 in 2020.
Chirag’s strong performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections helped him secure this position of strength. His party had contested five seats in Bihar and won all of them. The LJP (Ram Vilas) also got nearly 6 percent of the statewide vote share, showing that Chirag’s appeal extends beyond the party’s traditional Paswan-Dalit base.
Chirag had earlier stated that if the NDA performs well this time, his party would stake claim to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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