All i wanted the BJP to emerge stronger from the election: Chirag Paswan
Date: 12/11/2020
Chirag Paswan, widely considered the x-factor in the Bihar election, struggled to live up to his claims and managed only one of the state's 243 seats, but he called it a victory, saying that he "won" everything he had set out to do.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) said today that it wanted the BJP to emerge stronger from the election and that it was pleased with the effect of its party.
"Like all the parties, I, too, would like to win as many seats as possible, but my goal for these elections was to ensure that the BJP emerges as a powerful party in the state and we are pleased with the effect we have had," Chirag Paswan told reporters this morning.
When he launched his solo campaign for Bihar, the 37-year-old actor-turned-politician said that his only agenda to contend independently from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was to beat Nitish Kumar so that his own party could form a coalition with the BJP.
The LJP has nominated candidates against Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) and is judged to have cut its votes around the board.
Even BJP Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Nitish Kumar, acknowledged that JDU could have lost 20 seats due to the Paswan factor. Overall, Chirag Paswan could have cost the NDA almost 40 seats.
Nitish Kumar 's party finished with 43 seats, a significant decline from 71 in 2015. But the BJP rose from 53 to 74 to appear as a senior partner, adding further to the theory that it allowed Chirag Paswan to serve as a disruptor to Nitish Kumar.
Accordingly, Mr. Paswan changed his goalpost today.
Asked about his party's flop turn, he said, "What is the meaning of defeat? The party's share of the vote has improved."
The JDU is smart of the blast, and one of its senior leaders has hinted that the party is angry with the BJP ally. "Chirag Paswan was meant to be condemned and managed from the outset," said JDU spokesperson KC Tyagi on Tuesday in one of his early interviews in which he acknowledged defeat prematurely on the grounds of bleak results for his party.
Mr Paswan said last month that he had discussions with the BJP leadership, Amit Shah and JP Nadda in particular, before announcing that he would run candidates against Nitish Kumar 's party. "It's not like I sat across the table from Amit Shah and broke the news with him. I approached him once and told him that it wasn't going to be possible for him to include me in the seat sharing, but it would be possible for him to include my agenda for Bihar First, Bihari First, in the NDA agenda. I said if not, allow me to put up my candidates against JDU. He didn't say anything on it... He was quiet, was listening to it," Mr Paswan told
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