Chirag Paswan, Jitnaram Manjhi leave together, the equation has changed

- Will field his own candidate against JD (U)

Patna Dt. 8 September 2020 Tuesday

As each party and leader was devising its own strategy in preparation for the Bihar Assembly elections, Chirag Paswan was found to have decided to adopt the strategy adopted by his father fifteen years ago.

A meeting of the LJP's Bihar Pradesh Parliamentary Board was held under the chairmanship of Chirag on Monday. In it, Chirag Dalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi decided to join the NDA, so he decided to field his party's candidate against JD (U).

"We have prepared a list of candidates for a total of 143 Assembly seats and sent it to the Central Parliamentary Board," Raju Tiwari, chairman and spokesperson of the LJP's Bihar Pradesh Parliamentary Board, told media. The decision on who to deal with and how many seats to share with whom was left to Chirag Paswan.

Fifteen years ago, Ram Vilas Paswan adopted a strategy of keeping the LJP a part of the NDA but contesting elections independently in Bihar. This time Chirag Paswan also decided to adopt the same formula. Interestingly, both the LJP and the RJD were with the Congress till 2004. But he soon realized that the Congress wanted to be a big brother, so in 2005 they left the Congress.

Although the LJP had sided with the Congress in 2005, the agreement was enough for the LJP to hold parliamentary elections only. The LJP took its own independent path in the Bihar Assembly elections.

In February 2005, the RJD fielded candidates for 210 seats and won 75 seats while the LJP fielded 178 candidates and won 29 seats.