Chirag Paswan Likely to Attend BJP-led NDA Meeting on July 18

Chirag Paswan, leader of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), is expected to attend the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance conference on July 18, as the ruling party goes all out to show its strength amid frantic efforts by the opposition to unify against the Modi government.

Union minister Nityanand Rai met with Paswan for the second time in a week on Friday night, and the LJP(R) also forwarded a letter from BJP president J P Nadda to the young man, inviting him to the NDA meeting.

Nadda hailed the regional party as a significant element of the NDA and a key partner in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s push for poverty alleviation and development. The BJP’s outreach to Paswan, the son of late stalwart Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, underscores the party’s efforts to reintegrate him into the NDA after he left the alliance in Bihar ahead of the 2020 state assembly elections to campaign against then-Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the BJP’s closest ally.

While a split in the LJP led by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, now a Union minister, weakened him, Chirag Paswan appears to have succeeded in keeping the party’s loyal vote bank with him, signalling the BJP’s importance in a state where it faces a formidable coalition of the RJD, JD(U), Congress, and the Left. He has also consistently backed the BJP on critical topics.