Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Friday dismissed rumours of any rift between his party Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, asserting that he is "inseparable" from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Paswan said that he was ready to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections as an National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner "if the BJP so desires". He also addressed the recent meeting of his estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
"My love for Narendra Modi is unshakeable. I am inseparable from him, for as long as he is Prime Minister," Paswan told news agency PTI.
The Union Minister was responding to a question about speculations being triggered by his stance on issues like Waqf Board reforms, lateral entry into bureaucracy and creamy layer and sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes.
"As a matter of fact, my views always reflected the government's stand. A case in point is sending the Waqf Bill to the Joint Parliamentary Committee," Paswan pointed out.
Speculations had been rife that Paswan, an ally of the BJP, had begun to flex his muscles in the backdrop of the decline in the party's position in the political circuit.
The BJP fell short of majority in the Lok Sabha and had to depend on its allies' support to form the government.
However, the LJP chief dismissed the speculations and clarified that his party was not averse to fighting the polls as an NDA partner.
"The fact is, our party has an alliance with BJP in Bihar and at the Centre. So, we will abide by coalition dharma at national level and in my home state. And although we have no strings attached in states like Jharkhand, it does not mean we are averse to a tie-up with BJP there. If the BJP and other NDA partners want us on board, we are game," Paswan told PTI.
He also ridiculed the rumours that followed the meeting between Paras, who split the Lok Janshakti Party in 2021, and Shah earlier this week.
Some of the INDIA bloc leaders have claimed that Shah was indirectly sending a message to Paswan that he could not afford to defy the BJP, which had many yet to be played aces.
Paswan asserted, "He (Paras) has lost all public support. He had been meeting all people ahead of Lok Sabha polls, too. That exercise proved to be of no avail."
Notably, Paras, chief of Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, had given up his Union Cabinet berth to protest against his party not getting any seat to contest in the general elections.
However, Paswan, who was the lone MP of LJP (RV) until then, got five seats and the party won all of them. Paswan won from the Hajipur seat, which is the pocket borough of his later father. This left Paras, who had won the seat in 2019, in a fix.
The 41-year-old actor-turned-politician was also asked about the recent controversy around Mandi MP and his "old friend" Kangana Ranaut.
"I think the matter should have been closed once the BJP made it clear that she had expressed a personal view which the party does not agree with," Paswan said while referring to an interview where Ranaut alleged that girls were raped at the site where farmers were protesting, creating a similar to the restive Bangladesh.
Paswan, however, expressed disgust over Punjab leader Simran Simranjit Singh Mann's taunt that Kangana seemed to have had an "experience of rape" herself.
"This is unacceptable," the Union Minister said, adding that "we cannot trivialise a crime that causes so much trauma to the victim. Especially at a time when the nation's conscience has been rocked by the horrific incident involving a doctor in Kolkata, which has evoked such strong remarks from the President, the highest constitutional authority."
