Tarari (Bihar), Nov 9 (PTI) Union minister Chirag Paswan on Saturday claimed that his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) would counter the RJD's formidable 'MY' (Muslims and Yadavs) combine in Bihar with its own support base of women and the youth.
The NDA partner was talking to reporters in Tarari assembly constituency, on the sidelines of a rally he addressed for BJP candidate Vishal Prashant along with Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, among others.
"I am glad at the candidature of Vishal Prashant who is young. My party had contested and won five seats in Lok Sabha polls. Four of our candidates were young", said Paswan, who himself clinched Hajipur, the pocket borough of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.
The 42-year leader, who did not mention the RJD by name, said "There are some who speak of an MY combination which is just mobilisation along the lines of cast and religion. My party, too, has its own MY combination which stands for mahila and yuva. Our stance towards women is obvious with two of our MPs being females".
Paswan, who is known to have excellent personal relations with the family of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, extended birthday greetings to the latter’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, calling himself a "big brother" of the young leader.
When asked whether he would like to give any political advice to Yadav, the third-term MP broke into a sheepish grin and remarked "Given his family background, he has no dearth of good advisors".
Paswan, however, deplored a statement by RJD's Buxar MP Sudhakar Singh who recently threatened to "beat up with sticks" BJP workers in Ramgarh assembly constituency where assembly by-poll has been necessitated by his election to Lok Sabha and his party has fielded his younger brother Ajit.
Paswan said, "This is the type of language and behaviour that is always associated with RJD, a reason why the party is blamed for jungle raj in Bihar while it was in power. I was a teenager back then and still remember how much the bad reputation of the state used to rile its self-respecting people".
Responding to another query, the Union minister said "Hindus are being targeted, in countries where they are in a minority, by extremists from other faiths. Canada is an example. But, it is disgusting that when Narendra Modi government brought the CAA for persecuted Hindus, the opposition criticized it".
"Fear-mongering has become the defining trait of INDIA bloc. They claimed CAA would deprive a section of population of citizenship though there was no such provision in the Act. They also said Modi, in his third term, will do away with quotas and scrap the Constitution. That too has been proven false", Paswan said.
Asked about Independent MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav's claims of getting threatening calls from people posing as aides of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the Union minister "if he is making such complaints, these must be investigated and he must be provided with adequate security".