Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 9
The sudden demise of union minister and Bihar’s tallest leader Ram Vilas Paswan has pushed the political parties to play cautiously as uncertainty prevails as to where the fallout will tilt.
The BJP was quick to respond; withdrawing the ban on Paswan’s LJP from using Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo in its posters and banner. Though it was under the pressure of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whose feud with LJP President and Ram Vilas’ son Chirag had spilled out in open.
Body of the most prominent dalit leader reached here from New Delhi in an IAF plane. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Speaker of Bihar assembly Vijay Kumar Chaudhury and Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Awadesh Narain Singh, leader of opposition Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav were present at the airport.
Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accompanied the body and family members from New Delhi.
Now, LJP has decided to display the photos of founder of the party Ram Vilas Paswan and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the campaign. BJP would also use Ram Vilas Paswan’s picture as and when required during the election campaign.
The move was necessitated as the BJP is not to invite wrath of the supporters of LJP, particularly dalit voters who constitute 16 per cent of the total electorate. There are 23 dalit castes in Bihar. Chamars and Dushadhs are among the 60 per cent of the total dalit voters. Paswan himself was from Dushad sub-caste.
Other dalit castes including Dhobis, Musaharas, Passis and Bhuyiyans are among the mahadalits identified by the Nitish kumar government. Only Paswans were left out of Mahadalit community, but on insistence of Paswan, Dushads were also included among the Mahadalits before the last elections
In the districts like Gaya, Nawada, Aurangabad, Kaimur, Vaishali and Nalanda, Dushadhs have 30 per cent population and lowest 6.6 per cent is in Kishanganj district.
The pan Bihar presence of Paswan voters is bound to affect the outcome of the assembly elections. Ram Vilas was the most influential dalit leader from Bihar and even after his death his last letter to the LJP workers last month informing them that all decisions taken by Chirag Paswan had full support from him and his son was following the instructions of the union minister.
Last week, two letters made public by Chirag on the alleged “humiliation” of his “Papa” by the chief minister percolated down to the rural people through newspapers. Chirag in his latest letter to BJP president J P Nadda had given justification for snapping ties with JDU and opposing leadership of Nitish Kumar by stating that the Chief Minister had insulted him during the elections to Rajya Sabha last year and had told on his face that Paswan was a BJP supported candidate only.
Chirag had also alleged Chief Minister was humiliating him too and did not respond to his letters since February. According to Chirag, Chief Minister was unkind to his father even during his critical last days and treated with contempt when reporters told him (CM) about serious condition of Paswan in the hospital.
LJP workers today carried out the newspaper reports based on Chirag letter to Nadda at the grass root level. Chirag would get benefit of a sympathy wave following his father’s death but Nitish Kumar had to be wary following anger of the cadre of LJP on charges of insult to the late union minister.
Prof Nawal Kishore Chaudhury, former principal of Patna College, said Chirag would get support of not only Dalits but also of other castes. He has deliberately fielded candidates of upper castes- Bhumihars, Rajputs and Brahmins.
Former MP and president of Jan Adhikar Party told reporters at JP International airport where Nitish Kumar was present “jinda rahte ijjat nahi diye, aur ab aaye hain.”
Chirag took a well calculated risk in 2020 by withdrawing from JDU,l ike in 2014 when he had taken initiative to snap ties with the UPA before the Lok Sabha elections. According to his father, Chirag was upset as Rahul Gandhi did not respond to his ten calls. And, now, same insult charge had been leveled against Nitish Kumar, who did not respond to his letters for the last eight months.
