A Chirag Paswan-Prashant Kishor alliance for next month’s Bihar election cannot be ruled out, because ‘doors are always open in politics’, Lok Janshakti Party sources told NDTV Tuesday.
Talk of Paswan and poll strategist-politician Kishor, making his electoral debut, linking up is the latest ‘twist’ in prolonged seat-sharing talks between the LJP and Bihar’s ruling BJP-JDU bloc.
Paswan – expected to contest from the Shahabad region – reportedly wants 40 of Bihar’s 243 Assembly seats, boosted by a 100 per cent strike rate (five contested, five won) in last year’s federal election, while the BJP will allot only 25.
An alliance is possible but not probable. Both are left-field choices within the larger political landscape in Bihar. Yes, joining hands with Kishor will ensure the LJP contests more seats, but allying with a debutant is unlikely to help Paswan realise his chief ministerial ambitions.
In any case, Paswan’s camp will hope talk of such an alliance will put just a little more pressure on the BJP in allotting seats. The LJP is reportedly also adamant about getting ‘respectable’ seats, sources said. Paswan himself told NDTV last month “… I want quality seats”.
“But I would not like to disclose those in a public forum. That would be unethical for a coalition partner,” he said then, pointing out the BJP-led alliance has not started seat-share talks.
In the theatre that is Indian politics, Paswan also offered allies a veiled warning, telling NDTV ‘I am like salt on vegetables… I can affect 20,000 to 25,000 votes in every constituency’ and that while he remains a member of the alliance, ‘I always have the option of walking out…’
That ‘threat’ has been downplayed by the BJP; party sources said Paswan remains a loyal support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the posturing is meant to satisfy LJP hardliners.
On the seat-share talks, BJP sources said the decision to delay talks till after poll dates are announced is a strategic move, to stop last-minute defections by leaders who don’t get tickets.
Meanwhile, LJP sources also dismissed reports the BJP and JDU agreed to split 200 (of the state’s 243 seats) between themselves, leaving only the scraps for the others, including Paswan.
‘Did any leader announce this?’ sources asked, pointing out also that talks will take place with the BJP and not the Janata Dal United, another indication of friction with Nitish Kumar’s party.
But the seat-share talks are only aspect of the increasingly complicated relationship between Paswan and the BJP. Another is the young leader’s chief ministerial ambition, of which he has made no secret. In fact, this morning the LJP shared an ‘abki baar, yuva Bihari’ poster on X.
The message was loud and clear as was the contrast – positioning Paswan as wily Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s successor and playing on the BJP’s own slogan from the Lok Sabha poll last year to underline his continued support for the saffron party and Prime Minister Modi.
That message was emphasised by LJP sources saying the focus now is to ‘strengthen Chirag Paswan’s leadership in Bihar’. The image battle – as critical as votes on paper in politics – the LJP is prepping pits Paswan against the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is widely seen as the opposition Mahgathbandhan’s chief ministerial candidate, and a ‘dynamic face’.