Chirag-Tejashwi meeting sets off speculation about alliance

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

New Delhi, September 8

Lok Janshakti Party MP Chirag Paswan today met RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in Patna, setting off talks of a new alliance in Bihar. Chirag was in Patna today to invite Tejashwi for a memorial service he had scheduled this Sunday to mark the first death anniversary of his father Ram Vilas Paswan.

“We have family ties going back years,” said Chirag as he and Tejashwi evaded questions on their newfound bonhomie and whether it would translate into a new alignment against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

New allies

• The attendance at the memorial service on Sunday may reflect the way forward in Bihar’s politics
• Besides Tejashwi Yadav, Chirag has also invited Bihar ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi for Sunday event

Chirag said: “Our fathers had long association. They worked together for years and my father would have wanted Laluji to participate in the event which I am organising. I came here to invite Tejashwi ji.”

Close ties

Our fathers had a close and long association. I came here to invite Tejashwi Yadav ji for my father’s first death anniversary. —Chirag Paswan, LJP leader

The meeting however did set the rumour mills abuzz, specially as it came after Chirag met and invited former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi for the Sunday event. Chirag has been out in political wilderness since his uncle’s coup after senior Paswan’s death. He lost the party, and is now about to lose 12 Janpath, the official residence of his late father for over three decades. Sources said the nature of attendance at the Sunday event might reflect the way forward in Bihar’s politics, where archrivals Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav had also joined hands against the BJP in 2015, only to part ways later.