RLJP to stay in NDA: Pashupati Paras

Patna, Aug 09: Amid ongoing political crisis in Bihar, Union Minister and RLJP president Pashupati Paras on Tuesday said his party will remain a part of NDA.

"Our party is with the BJP 100 per cent," Paras told PTI following a meeting of its parliamentary board where a decision to back the BJP was taken amid an imminent collapse of the saffron party's alliance with the Janata Dal (United).

A decision was taken to ally with the BJP in 2014 under the leadership of LJP founder and Dalit stalwart Ram Vilas Paswan, and his party will continue to adhere to his decision, he said. Paras is a younger brother of Paswan.

His decision is significant as the split engineered by him in the LJP against the leadership of Chirag Paswan was seen to have the backing of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U).

Kumar was unhappy with Chirag Paswan's decision to field candidates against his party in 2020 assembly polls, leading to a drastic fall in the JD(U)'s tally and relegating it to the status of a junior partner of the BJP.

Paras was then inducted as a Cabinet minister in the Modi government. "It is impossible to get a leader like Modi. He is the needs of the country. Till I do politics I will be in the NDA" Paras said. His party has five MPs in Lok Sabha.

Nitish Kumar has split with ally BJP for the second time in eight years and submitted his resignation to Governor Phagu Chauhan.