PATNA: Union minister and LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan ruled out Tuesday a run for Bihar’s top post in 2025, stressing his plans are for 2030 and 2035. His party will instead aim to strengthen NDA, he declared, remarking that “someone might say I cannot cook dal on my own, but I can certainly act as namak”.“The CM candidate is decided by alliance partners. In this election, all NDA partners are unanimous on CM Nitish Kumar,” Paswan told NDTV, quelling pressure from his party to project himself for the top job. “Ambition takes you forward, and I surely have mine. But any such discussion for 2025 creates confusion,” he said.
Chirag’s LJP (RV) played spoiler in 2020, undercutting JD(U) and pushing Nitish Kumar’s party to third place with just 43 seats. This time, he insisted his party will focus on boosting NDA allies’ chances. “We may not win many seats on our own, but we can give a push of 10,000 to 25,000 votes in every seat,” he said.The LJP(RV) president claimed a “100% strike rate” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where his party won all five seats it contested in Bihar, and said he intends to replicate that record in the assembly polls. “I have in mind the seats and candidates. A formal discussion in NDA on seat-sharing will be held soon,” he said.He rejected talk of any post-poll tie-up with Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party. “We have never had a post-poll alliance,” he said.Paswan also targeted opposition INDIA bloc, saying: “Rahul Gandhi visits Bihar but does not announce the alliance CM face. In 2020, one of their partners quit after the poll notification.” He was referring to Mukesh Sahani, who left the RJD-led alliance to join NDA that year but is now with the opposition.Asked about HAM(S) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi’s demand for at least 15 seats from NDA, or else contest 50 to 100 seats alone, Paswan called it part of pre-negotiation posturing. “No one can predict the future. Hardly anybody thought my party would contest the Bihar election out of NDA in 2020,” he said.
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