Chirag Paswan gets back bungalow which went to his estranged uncle after father’s death

File picture of Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Friday (November 15, 2024) took possession of the government bungalow in Patna which had served as the office of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party till it split up within a few months of his death.

Mr. Paswan’s entry into 1, Wheeler Road, situated a few hundred meters from vantage points like Raj Bhavan, the residence of the chief minister and the airport, marks the rise in his stock since his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won all the five seats it contested in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

“It is a great coincidence that we have been allotted, for my party, the very premises where I started my political journey,” recounted the Union Minister who had made his debut in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Mr. Paswan, however, maintained that he had “never insisted on having back” the bungalow till recently occupied by the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party of his estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, whose revolt had led to the split in the party founded by his late father.

However, Mr. Paswan asserted, “I am not someone who would hold a grouse against anybody. In fact, my memories of this house would always include the cherished moments I had spent with ‘chacha’ (uncle). It is because of circumstances of his own making that we are now apart.”

Notably, after splitting the LJP, Paras also got a berth in the Union cabinet and the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, which was then gunning for Mr. Paswan, quickly allotted the bungalow to his party.

However, by the time the 2024 elections approached, Mr. Paras had obviously run out of luck, with the BJP-led NDA throwing its lot behind his nephew, who was also given his Hajipur seat, a pocket borough of the late Paswan.

The LJP(RV) chief, who has mended his fences with Nitish Kumar and his JD(U), which had blamed him for the crash in its tally in the 2020 assembly polls, also thanked the state government.

“For the past three years, my party had been functioning out of my Patna residence, without a proper office. The state government had, earlier, told us that as per rules no party can be allotted a building unless it had a certain number of MPs or members in the state legislature,” said Mr. Paswan.

“We made a fresh demand for a building as party office after we performed well in Lok Sabha polls. Thankfully, this time our request has been approved. It will help my party in strategizing for next year’s assembly polls in which we shall work to ensure the NDA’s victory,” he added.