LJP (RV) hints Chirag Paswan will contest Bihar Assembly election from general seat

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on Sunday (June 1, 2025) hinted that party supremo and Union Minister Chirag Paswan would contest the Bihar Assembly election from a general seat instead of a reserved seat. | Photo Credit: PTI

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on Sunday (June 1, 2025) hinted that party supremo and Union Minister Chirag Paswan would contest the Bihar Assembly election from a general seat instead of a reserved seat.

In a social media post on ‘X’, Jamui MP Arun Bharti said that party workers wanted Mr. Paswan to contest from a general seat to send out the message that he was now ready to lead not just one section of the people but the whole of Bihar.

In April, Mr. Paswan had said that he wanted to focus more on Bihar and did not want to spend much time at the Centre. Assembly election in Bihar is due this year in October-November.

“Our National President Chirag Paswan ji always says that his politics is Bihar-centric and his vision “Bihar First, Bihari First” is a resolution for a developed and self-reliant Bihar. This is only possible when he himself stays in Bihar and leads,“ Mr. Bharti said in the post.

He further said, “When I went from village to village as the State in-charge, people everywhere had only one demand – that Chirag ji should now play a bigger role in Bihar. Recently, in the party executive meeting, a resolution was also passed unanimously that he himself should contest the upcoming assembly elections.”

Last month, Mr. Paswan had a closed-door meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna, fuelling speculation about his plans for the upcoming election. It was believed that he wanted to keep Mr. Kumar in the loop before making a decision.

“The workers also feel that this time he should contest the elections not from a reserved seat, but from a general seat – so that the message goes out that he is now ready to lead the entire Bihar, not just one section. Chirag Paswan today is not just a representative; he is the hope of the entire Bihar. This step will give a new direction to the politics of social justice – in which the fight for representation as well as acceptance will be fought,” Mr. Bharti asserted.

Reacting to the development, Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Abhishek Jha said that workers of any political party always wanted their leader to get the top post.

“Every citizen of the country has the right to contest elections from any place. If there is talk of Chirag Paswan ji contesting the Assembly election, what’s wrong in that? He himself has said that there is no vacancy for the CM post in Bihar as the entire NDA will contest the election under the leadership of Nitish Kumar,“ he said.

Stating that Mr. Paswan was a strong partner of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Kuntal Krishna said, who would get which Assembly seat would be decided during seat distribution talks. If the LJP(RV) wanted to field Mr. Paswan from any of the seats they get for their party after seat sharing, they were most welcome, he added.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwary took a dig at the NDA, claiming that chaos had already started in the alliance over who would become the Chief Minister.

Published - June 01, 2025 08:17 pm IST