Pashupati Paras quits as union cabinet minister after being denied ticket in Bihar

Union cabinet minister Pashupati Kumar Paras resigned on Tuesday and accused the BJP of doing "injustice" with his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party by not including it in the seat-sharing deal with allies for the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.

Paras’s announcement comes after BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced the Bihar seat-sharing arrangement where the saffron party gave five seats to the Chirag Paswan-led LJP (Ram Vilas).

Pashupati Kumar Paras, president of the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), resigned as the Minister of Food Processing Industries. He served the same since 2021 and is the incumbent Member of Parliament from the Hajipur constituency in Bihar.

At the press conference Paras briefly said about his resignation and did not elaborate about his future plans.

“Yesterday, the NDA announced the seat-sharing agreement for the 40 Lok Sabha seats. We had said we will wait till the official announcement of the seat-sharing. Our party has 5 MPs. I have served the NDA with complete dedication and honesty. Even today, I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is a big leader, a national leader,” Paras was quoted by the Financial Express.

The RLJP president showed his gratitude to Modi but expressed his displeasure over the treatment meted out to him.  Paras said that he served the NDA with complete honesty and dedication but was upset by the “injustice” that had been meted out to him and his party.

“But due to the injustice meted out to our party and me personally, I hereby resign as a minister of the Government of India. I will decide the future course of action after discussions with senior party leaders and workers,” he added.

The Paras faction of the undivided LJP was founded following differences between him and his nephew, Chirag Paswan, after the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan. 

In the seat-sharing deal announced by the NDA, the BJP will contest 17 seats, the JDU 16, the LJP (Ram Vilas) on 5 while one seat each has been left out for Jitan T Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha, reported the Financial Express.