Ram Vilas Paswan death anniversary: Top leaders, ex-contenders among invitees
Bihar: Although the LJP is fraught with issues concerning party leadership, its current chief and Ram Vilas' brother Pashupati Kumar Paras has said that he will attend the death anniversary event.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar will on Sunday observe the ‘barsi’ or the first death anniversary of its founder and stalwart leader Ram Vilas Paswan, who died in October last year after undergoing heart surgery. A Union minister in the first and second Modi ministries, nine-times Lok Sabha member and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Vilas Paswan left a lasting legacy in Bihar's political scenario.
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Chirag Paswan, LJP leader and son of Ram Vilas, will be organising the mega ‘barsi’ event on Sunday in Bihar's capital of Patna. Speaking to reporters a day before, Chirag said that he was ‘desperately seeking’ an appointment with Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who he wanted to invite to the event. Notably, Chirag was reported to have burnt his bridges with many of the party's political rivals, most notably Kumar, ahead of the assembly polls last year when he pulled out of the NDA vowing to defeat the JD(U) leader against who he levelled many accusations, which included “misbehaviour” with his late father.
Although it has not yet been confirmed if Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav will be attending the ‘barsi’, speculation is rife in Bihar ever since it was reported that Chirag had extended him an invite for the event. Lalu's son, Tejashwi Yadav, wrote a letter to Nitish Kumar on Friday, suggesting that the birth anniversaries of former Union ministers, including that of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, be declared state functions.
Although the LJP is fraught with issues concerning party leadership, its current chief and Ram Vilas' brother Pashupati Kumar Paras has said that he will attend the death anniversary event on September 12. The PTI news agency noted that Paras is embroiled in a bitter dispute with his nephew, Chirag, to claim the legacy of the late Paswan in Bihar, but the conflict has not deterred either of the politicians from paying out their respects to the party's founding member.
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“I will definitely attend the event on September 12,” Paras said on Friday. “It is an event to mark the death anniversary of my elder brother [Ram Vilas Paswan]. There is no question of not attending it. Whatever I am today, it is because of his blessings, although I have the good wishes of the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] as well.”
Top national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have also received invites to the event. Chirag also met President Ram Nath Kovind earlier this week and extended him an invite to the event.
Ram Vilas Paswan died in Patna on October 8, 2020, after being hospitalised and undergoing heart surgery. He was the cabinet minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.