Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief and Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Sunday announced that he would contest the Bihar Assembly polls later in the year from a seat that “people decide for him”, ending weeks of speculation over his return to state politics.“Everyone wants to know if I will contest the Assembly polls. Let me announce that I will contest the polls, all 243 seats. I will not contest for myself but for the people of Bihar… I am leaving it to you to decide from which seat I should contest,” Paswan said at a rally in Arah, putting to rest all speculations triggered over recent weeks by social media posts from his brother-in-law and Jamui MP Arun Kumar Bharti.AdvertisementChirag made it clear that his plans to contest the elections from an unreserved constituency should not be construed as his chief ministerial ambitions. “Let me make one thing very clear. My contest will only ensure a better strike rate for my party, which would help the NDA,” he said.The Union Minister said his party would make every effort to ensure that the NDA wins the Assembly polls with a huge margin. “My alliance is only with the people of Bihar, I will contest on all 243 seats to make the NDA stronger. I will live and die for Bihar and for the people of the state … for the pride of the state.”Chirag’s announcement is being viewed as an attempt to gain political leverage for his party ahead of seat-sharing talks with NDA allies, which is seemingly turning into a tricky scenario as bigger partners BJP and JD(U) said to be eyeing 100 seats each. While the Union Minister, citing his party’s 100% strike rate in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, has been reportedly demanding 40 seats, other allies such as Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtiya Lok Morcha (RLM) of Upendra Kushwaha are also learnt to have demanded a handful of seats.AdvertisementChirag’s aggressive posturing also assumes significance as his party, which contested the 2020 polls alone and secured almost 5.66% vote share, was seen as a key factor in bringing down the JD(U)’s tally from 71 in 2015 to 43, thus relegating it to the third position behind the RJD and BJP.The LJP (Ram Vilas) chief chose Arah in the Shahbad region to make the announcement as it is traditionally considered to be a weak region for the JD(U), according to sources. The INDIA bloc, comprising the RJD, Congress and the CPI (ML) Liberation won 10 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Shahbad and adjoining Magadh regions last year, with Independent Pappu Yadav winning Purnea.Chirag, who has publicly spoken of his wish to return to Bihar and contest the Assembly elections to keep contributing to the development of Bihar, is pitching himself as the kingmaker, if not the king, in state politics.The message is not lost on the BJP, whose leadership maintains that Chirag is free to contest from any of the seats his party is allocated as part of a seat-sharing agreement. However, a section in the ruling party has said he is merely trying to take advantage of a sense of confusion in the state unit.BJP leader Mrityunjay Sharma, the author of Broken Promises: Caste, Crime and Politics in Bihar, recently told The Indian Express that Chirag’s posturing was linked to his efforts to expand his party’s base. “It seems that Chirag wants to expand the reach of his party beyond a caste party of Paswans, as it is seen. He wants to include various other voting blocs, such as the youth and women. That’s the reason why he says he wants to contest from an unreserved seat,” he said.However, Sharma said the LJP(RV) chief would find it tough. “The LJP(RV) is a small party compared to Nitish Kumar’s party. Historically, the JD(U) has always been a significant party with around 20% vote share even in a coalition. Paswan would have to expand his base significantly to be such a player, which is really tough in the coming five to 10 years,” he said. The LJP’s best performance in the 243-member Assembly was in 2005, when it won 29 seats.Praise for Modi, NitishAt the Arah rally, Chirag also took a dig at his uncle and former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, who split the LJP and floated the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) in 2021, barely a year after Ram Vilas Paswan’s death.most read“My party was split after my father died. Yet I did not break. The one who should have been a father figure chose to leave me in the lurch. It was the people of Bihar who became my parents in times of distress,” he said.Chirag heaped praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for their vision of development for the state. “The slogan of Bihar first, Bihari first will keep reverberating in Bihar,” he said as the crowd referred to him as the “future leader of Bihar”.Chirag also took potshots at Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi without naming him. “There is a leader from Delhi who visits Bihar at regular intervals and calls the state the crime capital. I want to remind him that during the 15-year ‘jungle raj’ under the RJD, the Congress had been an ally for five years. There was lawlessness in Bihar between 1980 and 1990 during Congress rule too,” he said.