Chirag Paswan, Who Called Himself 'Modi's Hanuman', Meets Amit Shah Ahead Of NDA Meet

The LJP, led by late Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, contested six Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and also received a Rajya Sabha seat as part of a seat-sharing deal with the BJP.

Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) visited senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, a day before the governing National Democratic Alliance summit, news agency PTI reported. Paswan is in discussions with the BJP to finalise his party's share of Lok Sabha seats in Bihar for the general elections in 2024, and the meeting is considered as part of that process. Nityanand Rai, a top BJP politician from Bihar, has already met with Paswan twice.

The LJP, led by late Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, contested six Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and also received a Rajya Sabha seat as part of a seat-sharing deal with the BJP. Despite a division within his party, Paswan wants the BJP to maintain the same system.

The development is seen as the BJP's outreach to Chirag Paswan to bring him back to the NDA after he left the alliance in Bihar in 2020 to fight against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United).

During the crisis in the LJP following the death of supremo Ram Vilas Paswan, where Pashupati Kumar Paras broke away a faction of the party, Chirag Paswan had said he was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Hanuman" and supported him in every difficult situation. 

"I don’t need to use PM Modi's photos for campaigning. He lives in my heart, I am his Hanuman. If needed, I'll tear open my chest and show it," Chirag Paswan had said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has invited National President of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) Chirag Paswan to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting on July 18 in a significant move ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections. JP Nadda, the BJP's national president, has written to Paswan, calling the LJP as "an important part of the NDA" led by the saffron party. Notably, the news comes only days before the opposition's second mega-meeting in Bengaluru on July 17.

The letter, tweeted by news agency ANI, says, "In the last 9 years, the NDA government under the leadership of respected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given a new height to the multi-dimensional development of the country. In the NDA government, remarkable works have been done in many areas including poor welfare, restoration of cultural pride, economic progress, defense and security of the country, India's strong reputation abroad."

Nadda wrote that an NDA meeting has been decided to be held on Tuesday, July 18 at 5 pm at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Modi.