Quick Read
Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed.
In an interview with NDTV, Union Minister Chirag Paswan expressed pride in being compared to Tejashwi Yadav, despite his party lacking MLAs.
Patna:
Union Minister Chirag Paswan has said that it is a “big thing” that he is often compared to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.
“I’m happy that a person who does not have a single MLA is compared with a person whose party has been in power for a long time, and whose family has had two chief ministers,” Mr Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president, told NDTV while referring to RJD boss Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife, Rabri Devi, who have both served as Bihar chief ministers.
The RJD, the main Opposition party in Bihar, has 79 MLAs in the 243-member assembly, while Mr Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which fought the 2020 polls separately from the ruling BJP-led NDA, was not able to open its account.
Chiran Paswan On “Bihar Calling Me” Remarks
Asked about his repeated statement that “Bihar is calling me”, Chirag Paswan said his “love for the state is not new” as he entered politics because of Bihar.
“I decided to go back to my state after I lived in Delhi and worked in Bombay, and saw the way Biharis have to live there in difficult conditions and the way they have to face insults. I saw all these things and decided that I would have to go back to my state and build the Bihar that was imagined by my father, Ram Vilas Paswan,” the Hajipur MP said.
“I also created the ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’ vision document, which has a detailed solution to every problem related to Bihar. I prepared a complete road map on how we can take Bihar on the path of development,” he added.
He also said he will contest the upcoming assembly elections if his party wants.
On Posters Showing Him As Next Bihar Chief Minister
After Chirag Paswan’s recent “Bihar is calling me” remark, his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) had put up posters positioning him as the “next Chief Minister” ahead of the assembly elections due later this year.
Asked if he had given a “silent consent” to those posters, the 42-year-old said that “many times the sentiments of the workers are so strong that you cannot stop them even if you want to”.
“I also feel bad about this many times,” he said, citing examples of posters that are put up when he visits a place or a family after a “tragic” incident.
“These posters were put up with the same sentiment,” Mr Paswan said, adding that he can only ask the party workers to stop but “can’t control their sentiments”.
He also said that every worker should have the sentiment that their party president can be the chief minister.
“Unless the party workers see their leader in the highest position, then what is the use of that leader?” he said.
“I also wanted to see Ram Vilas Paswan as the Bihar chief minister. I wanted to see him in the post of the Prime Minister,” he said, referring to his father, a former Union Minister who was a nine-time Lok Sabha MP.
“The workers have this feeling for every leader, and I respect that,” he added.
