Once Neglected Now In Limelight, How PM Modi’s ‘Hanuman’ Is NDA’s Biggest Asset In Bihar

Patna: Once neglected by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chirag Paswan, president of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in Bihar, has significantly come into the limelight after the Lok Sabha election as his party won all five seats contested in the state. Chirag, who described himself as ‘Narendra Modi’s Hanuman,’ during an interview with India Today TV, has always been loyal to the saffron party, and his loyalty to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is unwavering. He remained loyal to the BJP even when his uncle, Pashupati Paras, broke from the LJP and became a Union Minister in the BJP-NDA government; even then, Chirag did not raise his voice or rebel against the PM Modi government.

Pashupati Paras

Pashupati Paras is the youngest brother of Ram Vilas Paswan, founder of Lok Janshakti Party. After the death of Paswan in 2020, the party was divided in two factions – the LJP and the Pashupati Paras formed his own faction by breaking away with four MPs.

However, the saffron party’s decision to offer five seats to Chirag’s LJP faction, excluding Pashupati Paras from seat-sharing deal in Bihar was a match clinching move by the BJP that also went successful and churned out victory.

Chirag Paswan Steer Heading LJP

Notably, Paswan’s LJP’s contested in five Lok Sabha seats – Khagaria, Samastipur, Hajipur, Jamui, and Vaishali and emphatically emerged victorious in all.

It is worth noting that NDA’s overall performance weakened in this Lok Sabha Elections but Paswan’s party only made gains with a 100 per cent strike rate. The BJP only won 12 ut of 40 seats in Bihar. Not only in Bihar but in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, the saffron party performed less than the previous general elections.

Chirag Paswan’s Tireless Efforts

LJP, with Chirag Paswan’s tireless efforts, managed to claim 6.47% of the total votes in Bihar. A significant share of these votes came from its Dalit support base. Chirag Paswan, the charismatic leader, successfully secured the Hajipur seat with a massive lead of 1,70,105 votes over RJD’s Shiv Chandra Ram. Other notable victories were Chirag Paswan’s brother-in-law, Arun Bharti in Jamui; Rajesh Verma, a prominent party leader, in Khagaria; young leader Shambhavi Chaudhary in Samastipur, and the strong-willed Veena Devi made her mark in Vaishali.

Arun Bharti put up a victorious stand in Jamui, outdoing RJD’s contender, Archana Kumari, by a significant gap of 112,482 votes. Moreover, Shambhavi Chaudhary emerged triumphant in Samastipur, beating the opposition, Congress’s Sunny Hazari, by a prominent 187,251 votes margin. Further in Khagaria, we saw a win by Rajesh Verma over CPI (M)’s candidate, Sanjay Kumar by a considerable 161,131 votes difference. Finally, Veena Devi ruled Vaishali by overcoming the RJD contender, Vijay Kumar (a.k.a Munna Shukla), with a winning margin of 89,634 votes.