Pashupati Kumar Paras’s ‘man’ meets Chirag Paswan in Delhi

PATNA: Hajipur MP Pashupati Kumar Paras-led faction of LJP received a setback when their state vice-president and former MLC Vinod Kumar Singh met Chirag Paswan in Delhi on Monday and reposed faith in his leadership. “The proposed ‘ashirvad yatra’, which is to be launched from Hajipur, will be a historic one,” said Singh.
Earlier, Paras group had claimed that Singh was with them. However, state president of the Chirag-led faction, Raju Tiwari, said Singh took part in their Sunday's national executive committee meeting as an invited member. There were 77 members of the national executive committee of LJP. In addition, the party has 17 invited members. On Sunday, 66 members were present.
Tiwari said at least 20 state presidents of the party took part in their executive committee meeting on Sunday, proving Chirag’s support base and growing influence in the party.
On the other hand, Paras-led faction asserted that the people were brought in hired vehicles from different states to show strength at the executive committee meeting convened by Chirag, who has been removed as the LJP national president.
The tug of war between ‘chacha’ and ‘bhatija’ for one-upmanship has, however, left the district level party functionaries confused. “Both are honourable for us,” said a district LJP president, requesting anonymity.
Most of the district office-bearers preferred to wait for the controversy to die down. “It’s a family fight. So, better keep mum over the issue,” said another functionary.
They, however, maintained that now the ball is in the court of the election commission, which will decide who is the real claimant of the party's symbol--bungalow.
"It's sooner the better," a former MLA of LJP said.