One of Chirag Paswan’s first announcements as Lok Jan Shakti Party president was that the LJP would not accept seats given as charity by the BJP. He said the party would go it alone in 50 of 81 seats in the Jharkhand assembly elections (November 30-December 20). Paswan, 37, spoke to THE WEEK about his vision for the party. Edited excerpts:
Q/ How do you see your alliance with the BJP?
A/ We have been an honest ally. Till now, we have endorsed and followed the agenda set by the BJP. Now, we also want to share our agenda with them. I have told this to the BJP leadership.
Q/ But you are contesting separately in Jharkhand.
A/ I want to make it very clear that our alliance with the BJP is only for Bihar. In Jharkhand, we wanted to contest with the BJP. I was constantly in touch with Amit Shah ji, J.P. Nadda ji, state election in-charge Om Mathur and Chief Minister Raghubar Das. I wrote to them, but got no response. After they announced seats, I was under pressure from our state unit as they were confident that we needed more seats and that we will be able to do well if we went alone. It is also our goal to expand.
Q/ What is your vision for the LJP?
A/ Today, our party is at one of its high points. We are part of the government in the Centre and state (Bihar). We have an MLA in Manipur, who is part of state cabinet. My priority is to expand in states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, and the northeast. We have strong cadre in these states. This is also the reason we are contesting alone in Jharkhand. Youth is the focus of our expansion. We want to address their concerns, like employment. Like we have commissions for women, I have asked for a youth commission.
Q/ Will the outcome of the Jharkhand elections impact the Bihar elections next year?
A/ Every election is different, and issues are different. As we saw, the impact of issues like Article 370 was little in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Q/ Will you accept Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate in Bihar?
A/ I have no hesitation in saying that Nitish Kumar is our leader and the election will be fought under his leadership. But we still have not started talks on Bihar.