New Delhi:
Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief on Friday filed his nomination to contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was among those present with Paswan when he filed his papers before the Returning Officer at Bihar Legislative Assembly.
The necessity for a by-election to the sole seat of Rajya Sabha in the state arose from the resignation of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from the Rajya Sabha following his election to Lok Sabha. He registered a thumping victory from Patna Sahib seat for the BJP by defeating sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha, who contested from Congress ticket this time, by a margin of 2.84 lakh votes.
Prasad polled a whopping 61.85 per cent of the total votes in the constituency, which comprises the entire state capital besides a couple of assembly segments on the outskirts.
Pawan, whose party contested on six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar as a constituent of the BJP-led NDA and won all of them, was promised a Rajya Sabha berth under a pre-election agreement. Paswan is Consumer Affairs Minister in the Modi 2.0 government.
Meanwhile, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has split with senior leader and party’s national general secretary Satyanand Sharma along with over 100 party office-bearers resigning and forming a new party - the LJP (Secular).
Sharma had resigned protesting against Paswan’s style of functioning and announced the formation of a new party - LJP (Secular). He accused the Union Minister of promoting only his family members in the party and said the LJP has been turned into a family fiefdom of Paswan.
"Paswan's family has been dominating over the party, there is no internal democracy in the party," Sharma had told media persons.
