Overview
- At the Bahujan Bhim Sankalp Samagam rally in Rajgir on June 29, Paswan declared his intention to contest the October–November assembly elections under the banner ‘Bihar First, Bihari First.’
- He emphasized ‘nav netritva’ and pledged to expand his party’s appeal beyond the Paswan community to diverse Bahujan groups by championing social justice and equality.
- Paswan vowed to safeguard the Constitution and reservation rights, accusing the INDIA bloc of stoking emergency-era fears to mislead voters about potential threats to these guarantees.
- He challenged Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi to apologize for excesses during the Emergency, highlighting the impact on Dalits and minorities under Indira Gandhi’s rule.
- Leveraging his party’s clean sweep of five Lok Sabha seats, Paswan pressed for a larger assembly allotment for LJP(RV), even as formal NDA seat-sharing talks remain unresolved.