Both factions stake claim over LJP symbol with Election Commission

PATNA: The fight in the LJP reached the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday with warring factions led by Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras staking their claim over the party symbol.
A five-member delegation led by Jamui MP Chirag reached the ECI office in Delhi and staked their claim saying he was elected the LJP national president for a period of five years in 2019.
Chirag said he has urged the commission to take a final call on the matter not without taking their claim into consideration. “I will provide the relevant documents to buttress my claim,” he said and added that some people were staking claim over the party and using its symbol, which was not valid as per the LJP constitution. “Before the death of the party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, I was made its national president,” he asserted.
He also informed the commission about the suspension of the five party MPs for their anti-party activities. He described the nomination of Hajipur MP Paras as the LJP national president as “unconstitutional”.
Later, a delegation of LJP’s rebel faction comprising Sanjay Saraf and Vinod Kumar staked their claim over the party. “We have already apprised the commission about our claim. We also told the commission about the election of Paras as the party's national president by the national executive,” Saraf said.
Paras said his election to the top party post was valid as per its constitution. “Chirag is neither the party's national president nor leader of the parliamentary party,” he told this newspaper over the phone from Delhi.
Meanwhile, a video went viral on social media quoting Chirag as asking a man over phone to continue the agitation in Patna and also to keep a close tab on the activities around the party office.
In the video, the authenticity of which TOI doesn’t confirm, Chirag has been quoted as assuring the caller to provide full cooperation and assistance for the agitation and other related activities.
Reacting to the video, a former LJP functionary, Keshav Singh, said he had time and again pointed out about Chirag's association with some people having criminal antecedents.