This story is from August 24, 2015

Race for CM post: Will Paswan be a dark horse

Union minister and LJP national president Ram Vilas Paswan may well prove to be a competition for chief ministerial aspirants in the BJP. This became evident after he made subtle references to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday, saying the former PM wanted him to become Bihar CM.
Race for CM post: Will Paswan be a dark horse
PATNA: Union minister and LJP national president Ram Vilas Paswan may well prove to be a competition for chief ministerial aspirants in the BJP. This became evident after he made subtle references to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday, saying the former PM wanted him to become Bihar CM.
Though Paswan has not been very active in state-level politics and always denied he aspired to become CM, political observers feel the timing of his reference to Vajpayee’s wish might have a deeper connotation.
“At a meeting of senior NDA leaders, Atalji had proposed my name as the Bihar CM. However, I requested him not to push me into this,” Paswan said in Delhi on Sunday, fuelling speculations that he aspired to helm the state government.
BJP MP and actor Shatrughan Sinha, reportedly sulking over denial of a berth in the Union Cabinet, also recently suggested Paswan’s name as the NDA’s CM candidate. “The BJP has many good leaders. However, if the party is not able to zero in on one of them as its CM pick, a respectable and acceptable leader such as Paswan can be made the CM face,” Sinha told the media.
The LJP chief, however, was quick to rule out such a scenario, saying he would like to remain in the national politics. “Shatrughan-ji is like a brother and I thank him for his comments. But I have already said I will remain in national politics,” he told reporters on Sunday.
The LJP leadership has maintained that NDA is unlikely to announce its CM face ahead of the election. “Bihar CM will be decided after the declaration of the state assembly election results,” state LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras said on Monday.
Paras said BJP is a bigger party than LJP. He also denied that Jamui MP and Ram Vilas’s son Chirag Paswan was in the race for Bihar CM’s post.
BJP’s Bihar spokesman Vinod Narayan Jha said a decision on the alliance’s CM face would be taken by the party’s parliamentary board after discussions with all NDA constituents. “The CM will be from the BJP only. However, he will be acceptable to all parties,” he told TOI.
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