Chirag Paswan Says LJP (RV) Ready to Contest All 403 UP Assembly Seats if BJP Alliance Talks Fail

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Thursday said his party was preparing to contest all 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh if alliance negotiations with the BJP failed.

Speaking to reporters in Varanasi, Paswan said the party was in discussions with the BJP but was keeping its options open.

“As a political party, we are preparing to contest all seats (in UP). We have been speaking to the BJP on an alliance. But if all alliance talks fail, we would contest all seats,” he said.

However, clarifying his remarks to The Indian Express later, Chirag said they reflected the routine preparations a political party makes ahead of elections rather than a definitive decision to contest independently.

He also highlighted the growing political engagement between his party and Uttar Pradesh, citing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s participation in a function held in Lucknow last month to pay tribute to his late father, former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Chirag described Adityanath’s presence and remarks as recognition of the LJP (RV)’s expanding political presence beyond Bihar. He added that the party had organised several programmes in Uttar Pradesh and was receiving an encouraging response.

His remarks came a day after another NDA ally, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, signalled opposition to the expansion of Bihar-based political parties in Uttar Pradesh.

SBSP national general secretary Arvind Rajbhar said the party would resist the entry of Bihar-based parties into Uttar Pradesh, warning that it could reconsider its political options if such expansion took place.

The SBSP had sought an NDA alliance for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections but was denied a place in the coalition. It subsequently contested selected seats independently and extended support to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), without making a significant electoral impact.

Meanwhile, an LJP (RV) leader in Patna said the party was seeking to expand its political footprint beyond Bihar after winning 19 of the 29 seats it contested in the state’s previous Assembly elections. The party also has two MLAs in Nagaland.

With five Lok Sabha MPs, the LJP (RV) is the fourth-largest BJP-led NDA ally in Parliament, behind the Telugu Desam Party, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and the Janata Dal (United).

Chirag Seeks to Maintain Independent Political Identity Within NDA

Despite remaining an important NDA partner at the Centre, Chirag Paswan has sought to maintain an independent political identity, occasionally taking positions that differ from those of the BJP on key policy issues.

He was among the first NDA allies to seek an explanation from the Election Commission following a recent investigation by The Indian Express.

Chirag also strongly opposed the Union Public Service Commission’s lateral-entry recruitment initiative, arguing that direct appointments to bureaucratic positions without provisions for reservation and affirmative action were “completely wrong”. The government subsequently withdrew the recruitment advertisement.

Similarly, he criticised directives issued by BJP-ruled states requiring eateries along Kanwar Yatra routes to display their owners’ names, saying he would not support divisions created in the name of caste or religion.

On the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, he advocated a more inclusive approach and called for greater public and parliamentary scrutiny through a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

In Bihar, Chirag has also periodically raised concerns over law-and-order incidents and police action under the ruling coalition.

He has maintained that being part of an alliance does not mean compromising on one’s principles or becoming “spineless”.