Pashupati Paras breaks NDA ties, says party faced injustice due to Dalit identity

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost a key ally in Bihar ahead of this year’s Assembly elections in the state after Pashupati Kumar Paras said his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party is quitting the alliance.

The NDA had backed his estranged nephew Chirag Paswan, after Paras engineered a split in the Lok Janshakti Party founded by his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan. Paras alleged his party was treated unfairly due to being a Dalit party, which triggered his decision.

“Whenever an NDA meeting was held in Bihar, BJP state chief and JD(U) state chief issued statements that they are ‘5 Pandavas’ in Bihar, they didn’t mention our party’s name anywhere," said the RLJP chief at an event honouring Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary.