Chirag Paswan urges Om Birla to reconsider decision to recognise Pashupati Paras as LJP leader in Lok Sabha

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan has written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to reconsider the decision to recognise his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as the leader of the House. Birla had on Monday accepted Pashupati Paras as the new leader of the LJP in the House.

The decision to replace Chirag as the party's parliamentary leader was taken on Sunday by five MPs. The LJP has 6 MPs in the Lok Sabha -- Pashupati Paras, Price Raj (son of Pashupati), Chandan Singh, Veena Devi, Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Chirag Paswan.

Sunday's meeting was attended by all except Chirag. The MPs unanimously elected Paras as the party's parliamentary leader in the Lok Sabha, replacing Chirag. The MPs later met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to hand a letter to him about new developments. They urged Birla to consider Pashupati as the new leader of the LJP in Lok Sabha.

Chirag is the son of late LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan. Pashupati is the younger brother of Ram Vilas.

"Since Article 26 of the Constitution of LJP empowers Central Parliamentary Board of the Party to decide who would be Leader of out Party in Lok Sabha, hence, the decision of announcing Pashupati Kumar Paras MP as Leader of LJP Party in the Lok Sabha is contrary to the provision of Constitution of our Party," he said in the letter addressed to Birla.

"It is requested to review decision dated 13.06.2021 and to issue a new circular in favour of Chirag Paswan MP as Leader in Lok Sabha of Lok Jan Shakti Party," he added.

Meanwhile, Chirag has cancelled the scheduled press conference today. Chirag was slated to address the media at 1 PM at his Delhi residence, but the police announced that the media briefing has been postponed by the politician.

In another related development, scores of LJP workers protested outside the residence of Pashupati Paras in the national capital.

Chirag had earlier this week said that his uncle Pasupati was conspiring against him since his father and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan was in ICU in a Delhi hospital last year. He even uploaded a letter written on March 29 on Twitter where he made serious allegations against Paras. Chirag said that Lok Jan Shakti Party is like his mother but Paras is involved in cheating the party.

On Tuesday, Chirag was removed as LJP president in an emergency meeting by the five rebel MPs. Suraj Bhan will function as working president until a new president is elected in a national executive meeting, which is expected soon in the coming days. Chirag had also held a parallel executive committee meeting virtually where it was decided to expel the five MPs for anti-party activities.

The LJP was founded by Chirag's father Ram Vilas Paswan, who passed away in October last year. Chirag had taken over the reins of the party after the demise of his father ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections last year. Chirag had decided to contest the Bihar elections outside the NDA and had led an aggressive campaign, questioning Nitish Kumar's governance model in the state. His decision saw the ruling Janata Dal-United in Bihar receiving a massive blow as it lost on several seats due to the triangular contests.