Chirag Paswan To Contest Bihar Polls, Party Eyes All 243 Seats

Patna: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader and Union Minister Chirag Paswan announced a potential shift in Bihar's political paradigm on Sunday by declaring that he would contest the forthcoming Bihar Assembly elections and that his party would field candidates in all 243 seats.

The announcement, which could signal anything from muscle-flexing by the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), or LJP(R), for a better seat-sharing deal within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to an impending realignment in Bihar politics or even a hint of a rupture in the ruling alliance, came at Chirag’s Nav Sankalp Mahasabha (New Resolution Mega Meeting) in Ara, around 50 km west of Patna.

The move by the 42-year-old Hajipur MP also implies that he would soon quit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, where he currently holds the position of Minister of Food Processing Industries.

“Yes, I will contest the Assembly elections. I will contest all 243 Assembly seats. I will contest the elections for Bihar and its people. I will contest the polls to make Bihar first and Bihari first,” Chirag declared before a mammoth crowd at Ramna Maidan in Ara town, about 50 km west of the state capital.

Asserting that his alliance was “only with the people of Bihar,” the LJP(R) leader promised to take the state to the top and left it to the public to decide the constituency from which he should contest the election.

“When my own relatives banished me from my home, the people of Bihar stood with me. The public of the state is my family now. They have to take the decision about the place from which I should contest. I leave this to you. I will fight and become an MLA from wherever you ask me,” Chirag said.

Speaking further, the LJP(R) president also signaled that he remained very much a part of the NDA, despite his aggressive posturing.

Chirag elaborated that his intention was to improve his party’s strike rate in the polls, which would, in turn, strengthen the NDA. He added, “Nitish Kumar will again become the Chief Minister, and it will be with more seats than the previous election.”

“I will contest all 243 Assembly seats in the state as ‘Chirag Paswan’ to strengthen the NDA. My target is to move towards the victory of the alliance,” he added, in an apparent attempt to soften his stance.

Sending out a political message about his strength, Chirag recalled how his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras split the then Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in 2021—walking away with all the party MPs to become a Union Minister—leaving him to fend for himself.

“They (the opponents) forgot that I was the son of a lion. They conspired to finish me. But I did not accept defeat and kept working for Bihar and its people,” the LJP(R) chief said.

Chirag has emerged as the undisputed leader of the Paswan (also called Dusadh) caste in recent years. Counted among the Dalits, it accounts for around 5.3 percent of Bihar’s over 13 crore population and is the second-largest caste in the state after the Yadavs (14.3 percent).

At the public meeting, he warned people to be cautious during the election season, as several political parties and leaders would attempt to lure them with tall promises.

“Ask them what they did for us in the past so many years,” he added.

Chirag also took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for terming Bihar the crime capital of the country, despite the Congress having held power in both the state and the Centre for long periods.

“When the yuvraj (prince) of the Congress comes and tells this, ask him what his party did for Bihar. When we talk about ‘jungle raj’ (lawlessness), we do not talk only about the reign of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The Congress was also a part of it,” the LJP(R) chief said.

Chirag added that the Congress was always looking for excuses for its defeats instead of introspecting. He said the party had lost in Maharashtra and would lose heavily in Bihar, Bengal, and Assam in the coming polls. He reiterated that Rahul’s allegations of 'fixing' in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls indicated he had already accepted defeat.

Meanwhile, Chirag’s statements are bound to create unease within the NDA, as many recall how he emerged as a vocal critic of Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal United (JDU) in the 2020 Assembly polls, despite both being in the same alliance.

He had fielded candidates in 134 seats, including many contested by the JDU, and managed to inflict significant damage, reducing the JDU to third position with just 43 seats in the 243-member Assembly. The NDA had managed to form the government with just three seats above the majority mark of 122. On the flip side, Chirag's party won only one seat, and its lone winner later switched to the JDU.