Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Bihar’s tallest dalit leader and almost the state’s counterpart of Ms Mayawati, looks poised to enter the Rajya Sabha with the RJD’s support, shaking off his yearlong political wilderness after the LJP was routed entirely both in Bihar and Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha polls.
It would be the first time that Mr Paswan becomes a member of the Rajya Sabha. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha from the reserved seat of Hajipur near Patna seven times in the past before he lost the 2009 polls to the JD(U)’s Ram Sunder Das. But, a year after the loss, Mr Paswan has realised that being a member of any of the two Houses of Parliament is going to be better for him.
The RJD’s newfound love for Mr Paswan, despite the past love-hate relations between the two parties, emerges from Mr Paswan’s constant support to Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav’s party after the latter lost the goodwill of the Congress in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha poll losses, especially when the Congress refused to ally with the RJD in Bihar.
It is, however, yet to be official that Mr Paswan would enter the Rajya Sabha with the RJD’s support. The RJD is most likely to nominate former Lok Sabha member Ram Kripal Yadav as one of its candidates for the five vacant seats in Bihar. In the June 17 polls, elections would be held only if there are more than five candidates. Mr Paswan is considered a most likely entrant to the Rajya Sabha as there is no possibility of a sixth candidate as of now.
Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav ignored claims for the nomination made by several leaders, notably his brother-in-law Subhas Yadav, whose Rajya Sabha term has expired, to send Mr Paswan to the Upper House though there were murmurs of protests from sections within the RJD.