Chirag Paswan calls on Amit Shah ahead of July 18's NDA meet in Delhi

Chirag meets Shah: A day ahead of the NDA meeting in the national capital, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the latter's residence on Monday (July 17).

Chirag is deliberating with the BJP over his party’s share of Lok Sabha seats in Bihar for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.

After the meeting, Chirag took to Twitter and described his discussion on the issues related to the alliance with BJP as "positive".

"Had a positive discussion with the country's Home Minister respected Shri Amit Shah in New Delhi on issues related to the alliance," Paswan tweeted.

The meeting comes a day after his uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Paras made it clear that he will not give up his Hajipur Lok Sabha seat for his nephew. Chirag has recently said that his party will "without any doubt" contest the Lok Sabha polls from Hajipur.

Earlier, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nityanand Rai met Chirag twice.

The LJP under stalwart Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag’s father, had got six Lok Sabha seats to contest on in 2019. The party had also received a Rajya Sabha seat as part of its seat-sharing negotiations with the BJP.

Paswan wants the BJP to stick to the same arrangement despite a division in his party.

Pashupati takes swipe at Chirag

The Union food processing minister claimed that while he was already in the NDA, his nephew was in two minds about joining it despite receiving an invitation from BJP president J P Nadda to attend a meeting of the coalition on July 18.

“He (Chirag) has no standing in Hajipur. I wonder why he is spending his time there”, Paras said when asked about a public meeting his nephew had held on Saturday in the parliamentary constituency, seeking to galvanise the people in his favour.

He also wondered what difficulty Chirag is facing in Jamui which he is representing for the second consecutive time.

“The people of his constituency must be upset over his intent to desert them. I, for my part, will not give up Hajipur,” asserted Paras who expressed confidence that the BJP will back him, saying: “In coalition dharma, nobody expects you to give up your sitting seat.”

“I am already a part of the NDA while he (Chirag) seems to be making calculations as to how many seats he must demand (from the BJP),” he added.

Notably, Paras was inducted into the Union cabinet after he split the late Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), shortly after his demise, leaving Chirag isolated in the organisation of which the latter was the national president.

The Hajipur MP insisted that Chirag had “quit” the NDA during the 2020 assembly polls, when the then LJP chief had raised a banner of revolt against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and fielded candidates, many of them BJP rebels, against all those who were contesting on tickets of the JD(U).

The ruling BJP has stepped up preparedness ahead of the Assembly elections in five states later this year, as well as next year's Lok Sabha polls. Several new allies and some former ones, including Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan, may attend the BJP-led NDA meeting on July 18 in a show of strength by the ruling alliance. The meeting will be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president JP Nadda.

Parties likely to attend NDA's meeting: