Why is Chirag Paswan keeping the BJP on the edge?
The aspiration to stand out as a Dalit leader in Bihar and ensuring a enough seats for his party in the state polls is behind his recent belligerent politics.
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On August 30, a meeting between Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan and Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not end with routine social media posts – it made headlines. It was the first time Paswan was meeting a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader after publicly opposing the central government on a slew of matters recently.
An ally of the BJP in the ruling National Democratic Alliance, Paswan’s party has just five members in the Lok Sabha. Yet, Paswan has been punching above his weight, taking credit for the government’s rethink on the Waqf Bill, and its rollback of lateral entry recruitments where mid-level bureaucrats were being hired by bypassing the established norms of reserving positions for Dalits, Adivasis and the backward castes. Paswan belongs to the Dalit Paswan community, also known as the Dusadhs.
Over the last month, Paswan also joined the Opposition’s call for a nationwide caste census, and supported a Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court’s decision to allow sub-classification in reservation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes – the only party in the ruling alliance to do so.
Not just on matters of policy, Paswan has taken a belligerent stance in electoral politics too. Last month, he said that his party could contest the Jharkhand Assembly elections on its own if there was...
