Pashupati Paras-Chirag Paswan, Pawars, Yadavs: The politics of uncles and nephews

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants the warring factions of the late Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar to mend ties before next year’s Lok Sabha elections. LJP’s Chirag Paswan, who has strained relations with his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, had walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls.

The saffron party is now trying to bring back Chirag Paswan into the NDA fold and has even invited him to attend the alliance’s meeting in Delhi on 18 July. But this is not the only uncle vs nephew battle that has hogged the limelight recently.

In Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and BJP government earlier this month.

Let’s take a look at the recent clashes between uncles and nephews in Indian politics.

Chirag Paswan vs Pashupati Nath Paras

Chirag had a falling out with his uncle Paras following the death of his father and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan in October 2020.

The party has been divided into two factions – one led by Chirag and the other, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), headed by Paras.

Currently, the RLJP has five MPs, with Paras serving as the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries.

Ahead of the NDA meeting on 18 July, the BJP has been wooing Chirag. Nityanand Rai, Union minister of state for home and a senior BJP leader, has met the LJP leader at least twice in the last two weeks.

BJP president JP Nadda has also invited Chirag to attend the NDA meeting on Tuesday. As per The Hindu report, Rai is expected to meet Chirag again “to offer him a compromise formula”.

Paswans play a significant role in several constituencies, comprising more than six per cent vote share in Bihar. Chirag has been credited with retaining the LJP’s vote bank despite a split in the party, noted The Hindu.

Moreover, he has been a vocal supporter of the BJP on key issues. “Among the Paswan voters, acceptance of Chirag Paswan is any day bigger than his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras,” a senior state BJP leader and a Rajya Sabha MP told The Hindu.

Paras and his nephew are presently engaged in a stand-off over the Hajipur parliamentary seat in Bihar’s Vaishali district. The late LJP founder had represented the seat several times in Parliament and now his kin are fighting over his legacy.

Paras had bagged the Hajipur constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on the LJP ticket. Chirag has emphasised he would not compromise over the seat. As per a Times of India (TOI) report, Chirag’s party has demanded six Lok Sabha seats won by the undivided LJP in 2019, along with a Rajya Sabha seat held by his father, as a condition to rejoin the NDA alliance.

There are also reports that Chirag, who is an MP from Jamui, may also be accommodated in the Union Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Paras, the younger brother of Ramvilas Paswan, does not seem keen on reconciling with his nephew and has declared he “will not give up Hajipur”, as per NDTV.

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Uncle vs nephew in Maharashtra

The rift between Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar is not surprising for Maharashtra, which has witnessed a series of uncle-nephew political slugfests.

On Sunday, Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of the state, and NCP MLAs from his camp met Sharad Pawar in Mumbai to “seek blessings”. Hours after the meeting, the senior Pawar reaffirmed his opposition to the “divisive politics of the BJP”, reported India Today. As per reports, the junior Pawar has again made an attempt to meet his uncle for a second day in a row.

Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and NCP MLAs of his faction reach Mumbai’s YB Chavan Centre to meet the party’s president Sharad Pawar for the second consecutive day. Sharad Pawar will reach YB Chavan Centre shortly.

(File photo) pic.twitter.com/Z6FDuWJ8M0

— ANI (@ANI) July 17, 2023

The junior Pawar had rebelled against his uncle by joining the Shiv Sena-BJP government on 2 July, along with eight other NCP MLAs, splitting the party into two camps.

Tensions within political families with many members vying for the top post are common in Maharashtra.
In 2005, Raj Thackeray left his uncle Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena after it was evident that the party founder’s son, Uddhav Thackeray, will be his successor.

Accompanied by some Sena leaders and workers, Raj Thackeray went on to form his own party – Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2006.

A similar scene played out in 2013 when BJP’s Gopinath Munde chose his daughters — Pritam and Pankaja — to carry forward his political legacy. His nephew, Dhananjay Munde, quit the party at the time and joined the NCP.

As per ThePrint report, the split in Shiv Sena last year caused by Eknath Shinde’s revolt triggered another uncle-nephew rift within the Thackeray family. Nihar Thackeray, son of Uddhav’s late brother Bindumadhav Thackeray, backed the Shinde-led Shiv Sena camp.

He was also among the lawyers who fought on behalf of Shinde Sena in the Supreme Court in connection with the disqualification petitions filed by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the report added.

Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav have had many ups and downs in their political relationship.

Although Shivpal came back to the SP fold last December, the uncle has not always seen eye to eye with his nephew.

Shivpal, 68, was among the “most trusted” person in the party for his elder brother and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian Express reported.

In 2009, Shivpal was appointed as the Uttar Pradesh SP president. However, only a few months later, he was replaced by his nephew, Akhilesh Yadav.

As per Indian Express, Shivpal was also against Mulayam’s decision to pick his son, Akhilesh, for the chief ministerial post after SP won the 2012 UP Assembly elections. Shivpal held major portfolios in the UP Cabinet, but differences started emerging between the nephew and uncle in 2014.

Tensions peaked in the following years and Shivpal went on to float his own party – Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) – in 2018.

The uncle and nephew started the rapprochement process ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections. Shivpal fought from an SP ticket in the polls. However, this was not the end of the political slugfest between the two. Shivpal supported NDA’s presidential election nominee Droupadi Murmu last year.

Akhilesh and Shivpal joined forces in the last days of former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who passed away last October. After his demise, a by-election was held from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in December, where the SP won by 2,88,461 votes.

According to Indian Express, the Mainpuri bypoll was a “prestige battle” for the SP, especially for the uncle and nephew. After the landslide victory, Shivpal merged his PSPL with the SP. “Akhilesh has presented me the cycle (SP) symbol. From now on, in my car, the SP symbol will be placed. We are together from today,” Shivpal said at the time.

Other uncle-nephew battles

In Haryana, the altercation between Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Chautala and his nephew – Haryana deputy chief minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala – is out in the open. Accusing Dushyant of corruption in February, Abhay had called his nephew “the biggest thief”.

When Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s son KT Rama Rao, was made working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi) party in 2019, it did not go down well with his nephew T Harish Rao. To assuage his resentment, KCR gave his nephew Harish Rao the plum finance ministry portfolio in the state government.

With inputs from agencies