"Alliance With Nitish Kumar Was Compulsion": Chirag Paswan To NDTV

Chirag Paswan, who is attempting a tricky manoeuvre by fighting against ally Nitish Kumar in the Bihar election while remaining a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), says he will "100 per cent" put up candidates against the Chief Minister's party and do his best to defeat him.

"Our alliance with Nitish Kumar was a compulsion. He overnight dumped RJD and Congress and came over to the NDA and became Chief Minister again. We had no choice. But we realized that Nitish Kumar kept working on his own agenda and never listened to anyone," Chirag Paswan, the chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), told NDTV.

"Nitish Kumar's agenda is the one he started with the RJD and Congress (and continued after breaking up with them in 2017). Where is my party's agenda in all this?"

Chirag Paswan, whose father Ram Vilas Paswan is a minister in the BJP-led central government, has announced that in the October-November Bihar polls, his party will contest alone. He says he will work with the BJP but put up candidates against Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU).

"Nitish Kumar will be ousted not by us but by the voters," he says.

His party is also strongly pitching him as an alternative for Nitish Kumar's job - even though the BJP leadership has thrown its weight behind the Chief Minister.

Why now? The 37-year-old actor-turned-politician said he had "always" been opposed to Nitish Kumar. "Since 2013, when I entered politics, I had been opposed to Nitish Kumar. He broke away from the NDA over Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We chose to stay with the PM in 2014. That decision remains the same," he said, asserting that there was no political opportunism in his decision just weeks before the polls.

He also said there was no pressure from the BJP to reconsider. He said he had decided not to stay with Nitish Kumar the moment he realized that he "doesn't take allies along". "I had no experience of working with him. Then I realized he was all about his own agenda and did not listen to anything we said. I have no personal fight with him. I have a problem with his policies and working style," he said.

After the LJP's solo plans, the JDU and the BJP are set to announce a 50:50 split in seat sharing; each will accommodate a smaller ally from their share. Chirag Paswan's decision to contest 143 of the state's 243 seats means there may be an overlap with the BJP in some seats.

Chirag Paswan admitted that there could be "friendly fights" in some seats where his party's candidates may face BJP rivals. "But we are clear that we will help the BJP in forming the government. Come November 10, Bihar will have a real double engine government," he said.