A few months before 2021, in October 2020, one of the big figures in Bihar and national politics, Ram Vilas Paswan, died. Since then, his party, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), faced serious internal divisions. A direct fight between Ram Vilas Paswan's son, Chirag Paswan, and his uncle, Pashupati Kumar Paras, broke out. In this process, Chirag lost his position in the party, and his political career became precarious. At the same time, Pashupati Kumar Paras joined the NDA and took up the post of minister. In 2021, Chirag repeatedly referred to himself as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Hanuman.”
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Cut to 2025, and it would appear Chirag has earned the right to that boast. On the Bihar Assembly election results, by 2 PM, his party’s strike rate was a high 75%. Indeed, Chirag Paswan has played an important role in laying the ground for the NDA and Nitish Kumar’s dominance in Bihar.
Chirag Paswan’s political influence in Bihar
Ram Vilas Paswan had emerged as a strong leader among the Dalits of Bihar. His party, the LJP, was a trusted platform for a section of Dalits and other minorities. However, due to internal conflicts and division of seats between JD(U) and RJD, the LJP lost its political space. A better understanding of the influence that LJP has over Bihar's politics can be made by comparing the results of the assembly elections in 2020 and 2025. In the 2020 assembly election, the LJP fought alone without aligning with any political bloc. It won just one seat out of 135. That election proved to be a big setback for JD(U), whose tally fell by 28 seats to 43. Historically, LJP has claimed that caste-based voting secures it a certain vote share in every constituency. Fighting alone in 2020, it showed that its votes could swing results away from Nitish Kumar’s camp, making all the difference at the ballot box. India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit data indicated that in at least 120 constituencies, vote splitting-considerably when LJP candidates finished third, affected the winning margin. The latter set included 54 constituencies that LJP contested.
This time, under Chirag's leadership, the LJP contested the Bihar assembly elections as part of the NDA. By 2 PM on November 14, the party had already sprung surprises. Ahead of the polls, Chirag had managed to bargain 29 seats for his alliance, and in 22 of these, his party was leading. Meanwhile, JD(U) crossed 80 seats, and the BJP got even more. Experts believe that the current results indicate that LJP has not just won some crucial seats but also increased the tally of NDA partners.
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Chirag’s steady rise
Chirag’s rise was not overnight. Following the setback in 2021, he started consolidating the party organisation. Gaining momentum with both Dalit and young leadership, he toiled at the grassroots level in politics. In 2024, his party, the LJP (Ram Vilas faction), allied with the BJP. Winning from his father’s stronghold, Hajipur, in the Lok Sabha, he became a union minister. This time as well, in state politics, Chirag Paswan has proved the power of both “caste” and “leadership.”
