Pashupati Kumar Paras elected unopposed as national president of LJP

New Delhi: Pashupati Kumar Paras, brother of late LJP President and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, was on Thursday (June 17) elected unopposed as the Lok Janshakti Party national president. Paras was earlier this week recognised as the floor leader of the party in Lok Sabha in place of Chirag Paswan after the rift within the LJP deepened. In a dramatic turn of events in LJP, Pashupati Kumar Paras was chosen as the leader of LJP by all but one of six party MPs.

Five of the LJP's six MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday and gave him a written request to appoint Paras as their leader in place of Chirag. The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday issued a revised list of floor leaders of the parties, in a notification, in which Paras was listed as the leader of the party.

Chirag Paswan, son of LJP founding president Ram Vilas Paswan, has been cornered in the very party he had been heading for nearly a year, had at a press conference in Delhi earlier in the day raised questions over the Lok Sabha Speaker giving recognition to the rebel faction which has chosen Paras as its leader.

On Wednesday, he addressed a press briefing where he accused Janata Dal (United) of creating fissures and attempting to divide the party. He said that the manner in which he was removed as the president of LJP was illegal and the constitution was not followed. 

While blaming the JD(U) for the split, he steered clear of questions regarding the role of the BJP in the development and added that what has happened is also an internal matter of his party for which he will not target others. "It is going to be a long battle," Paswan said, as the group headed by him fights the faction of five other party MPs, led by Paras, to claim ownership of the LJP.

The 38-year-old MP from Jamui expressed determination to take on the rival group while also taking swipe at his paternal uncle without using any strong words to attack him. "I did not feel orphaned when my father died last year. I do feel now," he said, adding that he had expected his uncle to play the role of the family's patriarch but was instead abandoned by him.

Meanwhile, both factions, led by Chirag and Paras, have now moved to control the party and project their group as the real LJP, founded by Paswan's father Ram Vilas Paswan. While the wing led by Chirag Paswan has expelled the five MPs from the party, the rival group has removed him as its president.