By getting Chirag Paswan ousted from his own party, Nitish Kumar has avenged his humiliation

Nitish Kumar is known for his fox-like cleverness and the cunning political moves one can expect only from him. The latest prey to his cunning moves is Chirag Paswan, who lost control of his father’s party to his uncle. Pashupati Kumar Paras, the youngest brother of the legendary Ram Vilas Paswan, along with five of the six Lok Janshakti Party MPs in Lok Sabha, broke away from the party and wrote to the chairman to recognise them as a separate faction.

Now both factions are fighting over the control of the party. A day ago Chirag Paswan was sacked from the position of the National President of the party, and later the Chirag faction expelled all the five MPs from the party. 

Whatever be the result of the fight over the party, the fact is that LJP now faces a clear divide, which has Nitish Kumar written all over it. During the 2020 assembly election, Pashupati Kumar Paras, six-time MLA and first time MP was strongly against breaking away from NDA, but Chirag was hell-bent on positioning himself against Nitish Kumar. 

Now Nitish Kumar seems to have taken revenge by dividing the party. Chirag Paswan accepted that if he had gone with BJP and JD(U), they would have swept Bihar polls.

“There were several reports of JDU trying to break the party. We saw that it was not possible for us to continue in an alliance with JDU. There were some people who wanted to live in their comfort zone. I agree and accept, if LJP would have gone with the JDU and NDA in Bihar, we would have swept the Bihar polls,” Chirag said, accusing his uncle of not making enough efforts.

However, Paswan also pointed out the kind of support they got from the people of Bihar. “We got huge support of people in the Bihar election, we got six per cent votes,” he said. 

For the uninitiated, Chirag Paswan positioned LJP against JD(U) and fielded candidates in all the constituencies where NDA had a JD(U) candidate. In almost every rally, he said that he has no problem with BJP but he will not partner with Nitish Kumar given his poor track record in delivering basic amenities to the people of Bihar. 

Read more: Nitish Kumar has woken up and smelled the coffee. Now he is trying to create a rift between BJP and LJP

In less than a year after the Bihar elections, Nitish Kumar pulled out a successful coup against Chirag Paswan with help of his uncle, and now JD(U) leaders are gloating over it. “It is a well-known adage that as you sow, so you reap. Chirag Paswan was heading a party which was with the NDA. Yet, he adopted a stance that damaged it in the assembly polls. This led to a sense of unease within his own party,” JD(U) national president RCP Singh told reporters as news of the ‘coup’ spread.

Nitish Kumar can gloat over this victory, but the fact remains that Chirag Paswan successfully made him a junior partner in the Bihar NDA. Thanks to his positioning of LJP against JD(U), BJP is the senior partner in the Bihar government. And, in the long-term, JD(U) has no future after Nitish Kumar while Chirag Paswan led LJP has just started the innings.