New Delhi: Alleging threat to his life due to “political conspiracy”, Lok Janshakti Party leader and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah and urged that he should be given ‘Z Plus’ security, the highest level of security accorded to an individual by the government.
At a press conference on Thursday, Paras said that he had received abuses and threats on his personal mobile phone, and has lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police.
Without naming anyone, he said his political rivals have been jolted by the “huge public response” he had drawn on his first visit to his constituency Hajipur in Bihar on August 23 after becoming Union minister, and accused them of resorting to this “murderous politics” as part of a political conspiracy.
His cavalcade was shown black flags by a group of people allegedly hired by his rivals and they also threw mobil oil at it, he noted.
Paras is involved in a messy battle with his nephew and MP Chirag Paswan over the leadership of the Lok Janshakti Party after five of its six MPs replaced the young leader with him as their leader in Lok Sabha.
Chirag Paswan, son of late Dalit leader and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan, has been on a tour across Bihar to rally support around his leadership. Paras is the younger brother of Ram Vilas Paswan.
In his letter to Shah, Paras expressed concern over the security provided to him and cited his busy engagements as a minister and the leader of his party.
He also referred to the squabble within his party over the change of leadership.
Hajipur was long a pocket borough of Ram Vilas Paswan before he fielded his brother to contest from there after he opted out of the Lok Sabha elections due to poor health. His son is MP from Jamui.
Paras told reporters that a few of his party leaders had also received filthy abuses and threat on their mobile phones.
He has also written a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar regarding this.
Paras claimed that the Hajipur police was not adequately alert regarding his security.
Both the Bihar and the Delhi police should act swiftly and take action against the culprits, he said.
Also read: LJP’s Pashupati Paras, the ‘reluctant’ politician stepping out of late brother Paswan’s shadow