After the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, all eyes are now on Chirag Paswan. Nitish Kumar is now preparing to form a government that truly reflects the mandate received in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections. The 2020 elections will never be forgotten as Chirag Paswan played a crucial role in defeating JDU on nearly a dozen seats. The question now arises whether Chirag Paswan will be with Nitish or against him. Nitish Kumar has been away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for almost one and a half years, during which time Chirag Paswan has come close to BJP President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just a few days ago, the BJP was supposed to distribute the 40 seats of Bihar among themselves, Chirag Paswan, Pashupati Paras, Upendra Kushwaha, and Jitan Ram Manjhi. Now that Nitish Kumar is with the BJP, the smaller parties are in trouble. This has led to discussions on whether Chirag Paswan will be given a strong position in the state government. This will be decided after JP Nadda’s arrival in Patna.
In the Lok Sabha elections, there are 40 seats in Bihar. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-JDU-LJP alliance fought together. At that time, the BJP-JDU alliance won 17 seats each, and LJP was given six seats. The strike rate of BJP and LJP was 100 percent. JDU lost one seat to Congress. The circumstances are different before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Just four days ago, the JDU was not with them. At that time, Chirag Paswan’s party LJP (Ram Vilas), Pashupati Paras’s LJP (National), Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular were together. Besides the responsibility of both factions of LJP, other smaller parties without MPs were also waiting to participate in the Lok Sabha elections. Now that JDU is back, Nitish Kumar claims a major share because out of the 16 MPs elected from the NDA last time, 16 are from JDU.
In the Vidhan Sabha, LJP is currently at zero seats. On Sunday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar submitted a letter of support from 128 MLAs to the Governor to form a new government. This includes 78 from BJP, 45 from JDU, and four from HAM along with one independent MLA. This means that the efforts of RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav to bring together RJD and independent MLAs, including Rahul Gandhi, the number one leader of the Congress, have failed. With the absence of these five MLAs, the LJP’s attempt to break JDU also goes in vain, so Lalu is silent. On the other hand, the RJD now has 79 MLAs in addition to 19 from Congress and 16 from Left parties. The only MLA from Asaduddin Owaisi’s party will also remain in the opposition. This calculation shows that LJP is at zero in terms of MLAs. It is worth noting that one LJP MLA had won in the 2020 elections, but JDU included them in their party. Kushwaha does not have a single MLA. Pashupati Paras does not have anyone from LJP either. Now, all of them are looking forward to the upcoming Assembly elections
नीतीश कुमार के मुख्यमंत्री पद से इस्तीफा देने के बाद, चिराग पासवान पर सबकी नजर है। वह अब एक नई सरकार बनाने की तैयारी में हैं, जिसका वास्तविक जनादेश 2020 के बिहार विधानसभा चुनाव में मिला था। चिराग पासवान की अहम भूमिका के कारण उन्हें याद किया जा रहा है। अब यह देखना होगा कि चिराग पासवान नीतीश के साथ होंगे या उनके खिलाफ। इसके साथ ही, चिराग पासवान को मजबूत जगह दी जाएगी या नहीं, यह चर्चा तेजी से उभर रही है। इससे पहले चिराग पासवान ने भाजपा के साथ गठबंधन को तोड़ा था और अब वह नीतीश के साथ होने की संभावना है। चुनावी परिस्थितियों के कारण चिराग पासवान की लोजपा विधायकों की संख्या कम है, जबकि जदयू को अब बड़ी हिस्सेदारी का दावा कर सकते हैं। इसलिए, चिराग पासवान की भागीदारी बिहार के अगले लोकसभा चुनाव में निश्चित होगी।
