A view of the posters of rebel leaders of Lok Janshakti Party, painted black by Chirag Paswan supporters, outside party office in Patna
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday rejected his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras's election as the party president, saying the meeting organised in Patna was "unconstitutional" and lacked even minimum attendance of its national executive members.
He said that his party has also written to the Election Commission, urging it to stop the Paras-headed faction from using its symbol and flag in its meeting.
LJP's secretary general Abdul Khaliq said a physical meeting of its national executive will be held in the national capital on Sunday to reiterate Paswan's earlier election as its national president amid the split in the organisation after Paras and four other party MPs staged a coup against him.
The party has over 90 sanctioned members in the national executive and barely nine of them were present in the meeting in Patna on Thursday in which Paswan's paternal uncle Paras was elected as its president in his place, he said.
Paswan added that only he as the party chief or Khaliq as its secretary general are authorised to hold any such meeting as per the LJP constitution.
Earlier in the day, Paras was elected as the party's new president at a meeting of the party's national executive called by his supporters.
Chirag Paswan, son of party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, is expected to leave for Bihar early next week to galvanise LJP supporters around his cause as both factions engage in a bitter fight to claim the party's ownership.
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Paswan also urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to reconsider his decision to recognise Paras as the leader of the party in the House, saying the LJP constitution authorises its parliamentary board to decide on its leader in Parliament.
"The faction headed by my uncle can be an independent group but cannot represent LJP," he said.
He said he will try to meet the Speaker over the issue and move the court if the decision is not reversed. The LJP has six MPs, including Paswan, in Lok Sabha and none in Rajya Sabha.
Five of its MPs recently elected Paras as their president in place of Paswan. Lok Sabha secretariat then notified his election after all five of them met the Speaker with their representation.
