Chhedi Paswan

Patna, April 25: Chhedi Paswan, the JD(U) MLA from Mohania, does not figure in the list of the party’s campaigners for the Karnataka Assembly polls but the dissident leader is in the chart of star campaigners for P.A. Sangma’s National People’s Party.

Chhedi told The Telegraph: “There is nothing wrong in campaigning for a like-minded party.”

“Right now I am in the JD(U),” he said, adding that he had not made up his mind on whether he would campaign or not for NPP in Karnataka.

The JD(U) and the NPP have sent the list of campaigners to the Election Commission.

Chhedi had a close relationship with Sangma when the latter was the Lok Sabha Speaker and Chhedi an MP. “I had invited Sangmaji to a function I had organised in the memory of late Bhola Paswan Shastri (former Bihar chief minister) last year. Sangmaji has been so close to me that he must have put my name without consulting me,” he said.

A fourth-term MLA in the Assembly, Chhedi has been Sasaram MP twice. He was the building construction minister in the first NDA government in the state but was dropped from the ministry in the second regime.

Taking a dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar, who supported Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential candidature in spite of the NDA’s support to Sangma, Chhedi said: “I wanted to vote for Sangmaji in the presidential poll. But Nitish Kumar is the leader of the party. He thinks differently.”

A senior JD(U) leader, refusing to be identified, said: “Chhedi has been a dissident from the time he was not included in the (NDA-II) ministry and we know that he will be on the opposite side at the time of Lok Sabha elections,” said.

Chhedi denied that he was speaking against Nitish because he was not made a minister but said: “He (Nitish) is seeing Mungerilal ke haseen sapne (daydream) if he thinks Muslims would vote for him after he snaps ties with the BJP. He would be wiped out.”

Chhedi even accused Nitish of indulging in divisive politics. “In the name of ameliorating the condition of Mahadalits, the chief minister has left the Paswan community to fend for itself,” he said.

The sulking MLA vowed that he would contest from the Sasaram parliamentary seat “with or without the JD(U)’s support” and defeat Meira Kumar, Lok Sabha Speaker and current Sasaram MP.

“There are many other parties. I was the one who defeated Meira Kumar twice. I am the only one who can defeat her there,” he said.