Bihar Assembly polls: Will Pashupati Paras join INDIA bloc? Tejashwi Yadav to meet Congress leaders today

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav has reached Delhi to formally discuss seat sharing arrangement with Congress for the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar. Yadav’s trip comes a day after  Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras announced severing ties with BJP-led NDA.

 

 

According to reports, Yadav will be meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss strategies for the Bihar Assembly polls. “Today is our official meeting. We will discuss the strategies for Bihar,” he told on Tuesday.

 

The meeting bears significance as it comes a day after former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras charged he has been sidelined by the National Democratic Alliance due to his Dalit identity. Paras had said he would contest the upcoming assembly polls alone.

 

 

Paras party came into being in 2021 as a result of the split he engineered in the Lok Janshakti Party, founded by his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan. "I have been with the NDA since 2014. Today I announce that henceforth my party shall have no links with the NDA," said Paras, who gave up his cabinet berth ahead of last year's Lok Sabha polls. Paras resigned after his nephew, Union minister Chirag Paswan’s party, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) got five seats to contest as an NDA constituent. Reportedly, Paras had tried for some time to have a toehold in the NDA by meeting top leaders like BJP president J.P. Nadda.

 

Paras said Bihar has been ruined under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s regime. "In Nitish Kumar's 20-year-long rule, the education system has been ruined in the state, no new industries have been set up, and rampant corruption affects the implementation of all welfare schemes," he charged.

 

Lately, Paras has been meeting with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav. Paras, who is currently on a statewide tour, aims to strengthen the party in all 243 assembly seats in Bihar.

India