NEW DELHI: 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 said on Tuesday.
Talk of Paswan and poll strategist-politician Kishor, who will make his electoral debut, linking up is the latest ‘twist’ as seat-share talks rumble on between the LJP and the ruling BJP.
Paswan 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 Lok Sabha election, while the BJP will allot only 25.
Both are left-field choices within the larger Bihar political landscape. Yes, it will ensure the LJP contests more seats, but allying with a debutant is unlikely to help Paswan’s chief ministerial ambitions.
But what whispers of an alliance with Kishor may do (the LJP will hope) is put just a little more pressure on the BJP in allotting seats. The LJP is reportedly also adamant about getting ‘respectable’ seats, sources said.
“But I would not like to disclose those in a public forum. That would be unethical for a coalition partner,” Paswan 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 that ‘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 that 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 multi-layered Paswan-BJP relationship.
Another is the young leader’s chief ministerial ambition, of which he has made no secret.
In fact, Tuesday morning the LJP shared an ‘abki baar, yuva Bihari’ poster on X.
The poster hinting at Chirag Paswan as Chief Minister. Image posted on X by @LJP4India
The message was loud and clear as was the contrast – positioning Chirag Paswan as the wily Nitish Kumar’s successor (despite the LJP leader having endorsed the latter for the role) while playing on the BJP’s own slogan from the Lok Sabha poll last year to underline support for the saffron party.
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, the opposition’s chief ministerial candidate.
