We remained with NDA despite injustice: ex-Union minister Pashupati Paras
Patna, Jul 31: Former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Wednesday maintained that "injustice" was done during the Lok Sabha polls to his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party which chose, nonetheless, to stay with the NDA.
Paras, who had given up his Union cabinet berth after his party was left high and dry in seat-sharing arrangements, was addressing journalists after a meeting of the RLJP, formed as a result of the split he had engineered in late elder brother Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.
"Although we got a raw deal in the Lok Sabha polls, we did not switch our loyalties. We hope BJP president JP Nadda would recognise this and give us a fair deal in Bihar assembly polls due next year," said Paras.
He also said the RLJP would like to contest, on behalf of the NDA, one of the four assembly seats where bypolls would be held as their MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha.
Paras also proposed the name of Narendra Nath Pandey, alias Sunil, the RLJP's national vice president, as the "candidate" for Tarari, which has fallen vacant upon the resignation of CPI(ML) MLA Sudama Prasad, who has been elected to Lok Sabha from Arrah.
"Pandey would give a good fight. He had contested the assembly seat, in 2020, as an Independent and finished runner-up. The BJP should give it consideration," said Paras.
Notably, the BJP candidate for Tarari, Kaushal Kishor Vidyarthi, had finished third and lost his deposit.
The former Union minister also said, "At our meeting, we resolved to make the RLJP strong and lend its strength to the NDA in the assembly polls, provided we get a respectable share. We will back any formation that gives us due respect. If need be, we would contest all 243 seats on our own."
He, however, flinched when asked whether he was trying to caution the BJP that he might switch over to the INDIA bloc which, in Bihar, comprises RJD, Congress and the Left.
"We are issuing no such threat. We are only demanding the respect that is our due. What will happen in future, only time will tell," said Paras, who came out of late Paswan's shadow months after the latter's death by staging a rebellion that left LJP heir apparent Chirag Paswan isolated in the party.
However, Chirag came back from behind in the recent polls when his party Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) got five seats to contest, won all of these and the young leader grabbed the Hajipur constituency as well as the Food Processing Industries portfolio, both previously held by Paras.
Paras was also asked about the order of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar to vacate the building where LJP ran its office and which RLJP came to occupy upon the split.
"We have challenged the order of eviction in court," he replied.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
