Chirag Paswan completes his turnaround: From the brink of political oblivion to Modi 3.0 Cabinet

From staring at an uncertain political future in 2021 when his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras walked out of the party and split it vertically to emerging as the only NDA constituent in Bihar with a 100% strike rate, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan has come a long way.

Set to be appointed a minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, Paswan has turned his political fortunes around by winning all the five seats his party contested in Bihar. In an election where significant sections of Dalits appear to have moved away from the NDA— cited as a reason for the BJP’s poor performance in Uttar Pradesh— Chirag, many say, has not only delivered for himself but also for the alliance in Bihar, where it has won three-fourths of the state’s 40 seats.

Only three years ago, Chirag, the son of Bihar’s tallest Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, found himself in the political doldrums. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, leading his party on his own for the first time (Ram Vilas Paswan passed away just ahead of the elections), Chirag took a brave decision to go it alone in the polls despite being a part of the NDA. He openly criticised CM Nitish Kumar and fielded LJP candidates only in those constituencies that the JD(U) was contesting. This had a massive impact on the polls as the JD(U) was reduced from over 70 seats in 2015 to just 43 in 2020. This massively endeared Chirag to the BJP, which had now become the senior partner in the NDA winning 74 seats.

However, months after the results, the LJP was split with Chirag’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras walking away with four of the six LJP MPs and joining the Modi government. Chirag was left in the lurch as he was not only out of the NDA, but even the party symbol going to the Paras