Anil Paswan, son-in-law of Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan has joined the Opposition Rashtriya…
Union Home Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. (Photo: Twitter)
Anil Paswan, son-in-law of Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan has joined the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) headed by Lalu Prasad.
Anil, who headed the Dalit Sena, a frontal wing of the LJP, joined the RJD with hundreds of his supporters at a meeting addressed by former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday. The development has come as a huge setback to the LJP, a key constituent of the NDA in Bihar.
“Although the LJP chief claims to be working for Dalits, yet he has been constantly ignoring their interests just to stay in power somehow or the other,” charged Anil Paswan soon after joining the RJD.
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He alleged his father-in-law had been working against the Dalits after coming in the grip of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP. Attacks on Dalits had increased under NDA rule, he added.
Anil Paswan dared his father-in-law to contest elections from a general seat, instead of a reserved one, and accused him of compromising with the party’s principles and surrendering before the RSS for “little personal gains”.
This is the second big setback to the NDA in the past week. On 28 February, former Bihar Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi had walked out of the NDA to join hands with RJD.
Manjhi, whose party fought the 2015 Bihar assembly polls in alliance with the BJP, made the announcement to join the Grand Alliance after meeting Tejashwi Yadav.
Manjhi was unhappy after his party was not allotted the Jehanabad seat. Reports said the HAM chief wanted to contest the by-poll to the Jehanabad seat but the BJP instead asked the Janata Dal United (JD-U) led by chief minister Nitish Kumar to contest the seat. Manjhi then demanded one Rajya Sabha seat for his party in the upcoming elections. As the BJP remained silent on his demand, Manjhi finally quit the NDA.
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