Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras resigns after being denied ticket in Bihar

Rashtriya Lokhanshakti Party chief resigns from union cabinet citing injustice over seat distribution in NDA coalition.

Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party chief Pashupati Kumar Paras on March 19 resigned from the Union Cabinet,. after his party was not given a single seat in the NDA coalition for Bihar for which seat distribution was done on Monday in Delhi.

While resigning from the Union Cabinet, Mr. Paras said “injustice has been done with my party”. Mr. Paras made brief remarks at the press conference about his resignation and did not elaborate about his future plans.

Pashupati Kumar Paras is Food Processing Industries Minister, and brother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan.

Mr. Paras wanted to contest Hajipur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat in Bihar and was at loggerheads with his estranged nephew Chirag Paswan. Mr. Paswan’s party got five seats, including Hajipur, in NDA seat allocation on March 18.

Mr. Paras is the sitting MP from Hajipur, a constituency where his brother Ram Vilas Paswan won a record eight times. Mr. Paswan’s son Chirag plans to contest from Hajipur this time.

Mr. Paras’s announcement came at a press conference a day after the BJP-led NDA announced its seat-sharing pact and gave five seats to the Chirag Paswan-led LJP (Ram Vilas).

The only ally in the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he called the Prime Minister a big leader.