Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan on Friday threatened legal action against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for making "false" statements about the former's stand on reservations.At rallies, especially in the Lok Sabha constituency of Hajipur which Paswan is contesting, Yadav has been claiming that the LJP (R) chief has advocated scrapping of reservations for affluent Dalits. When the attention of Paswan was drawn to the statement by journalists, he said, "It is false. Tejashwi Yadav is speaking lies at rally after rally. He must stop it, else I may resort to legal action".
He challenged the former Bihar deputy chief minister to "show any statement by me in which I may have spoken, on record, in favour of scrapping quotas for rich Dalits".Although Paswan and Yadav have been good friends for long, their relationship rooted in the close ties between their fathers, late Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad, respectively, political rivalry seems to have got the better of personal rapport.The LJP (R), an NDA partner, is contesting five out of the 40 seats in Bihar, and faces a straight contest with the RJD in three of these, including Hajipur, Ram Vilas Paswan’s pocket borough, where the opposition party has fielded Shiv Chandra Ram, a former MLA.
With immense fanfare, Chirag Paswan on Thursday filed his nomination papers from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, where he has entered the fray to cement his position as the true heir to late father Ram Vilas Paswan's legacy. Chirag, who headed the Lok Janshakti Party floated by late Paswan till it was split by the latter's younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras, now heads the LJP (Ram Vilas).The BJP, which had initially thrown its weight behind Paras, the sitting MP from Hajipur, who was also rewarded with the cabinet berth, decided to back Chirag Paswan ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year. The who's who of BJP in Bihar, including Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Nityanand Rai, the Union minister of state for Home who had headed the party's state unit in the past, drove to Hajipur, situated right across the Ganges from Patna, by way of solidarity.The 41-year-old leader, who has shifted base from Jamui, having represented that seat for two consecutive terms, was greeted by massive crowds in Hajipur where he also held an impressive roadshow.