Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi offers his tribute to Baba Chauharmal at SK Memorial Hall in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, April 29: The BJP chose Baba Chauharmal’s birth anniversary to take on LJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Vilas Paswan.

While celebrating Chauharmal’s birth anniversary for the first time in Bihar at SK Memorial Hall today, most of the BJP leaders alleged that Paswan never spared a thought to the Dalits but always projected himself as a Dalit leader. More than 2,000 people from the Paswan community attended the function and the slogan “Baba Chauharmal amar rahe” filled the air of the venue.

Present at the celebration were top BJP brass like deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, four-time MP Thawar Chand Gehlot, party national general secretary and co-in-charge of the party’s Bihar affairs Dharmendra Pradhan, state BJP president C.P. Thakur and former state president and MP Radha Mohan Singh.

Calling Paswan’s intentions nepotism, Radha Mohan Singh, said: “Chauharmal was a crusader and a warrior. Today, if he would have been alive, he would have fought against people like Paswan, who has always promoted his family members rather than taking up the cause of the Dalits. These are the people who just enforce law and force people to follow it according to their choice. Paswan never thought anything good about the Paswan samaj (society).”

Gehlot said: “He (Paswan) always projected himself as a Dalit leader but never did anything for them. He has served as a Union minister under many Prime Ministers but has never done anything for the downtrodden. He played politics in the name of his family. There was a time when he played a key role to form the government in Bihar but during that phase he said he would only support a chief minister who would be a Muslim. These are some examples, which prove that Paswan was never serious about the Paswan community.”

The deputy chief minister, on the other hand, slammed both Lalu Prasad and Paswan. He said: “They never thought about the downtrodden and always cheated them. For 15 years they did the same and that is the reason why they are left with few seats in the state. The LJP could not even win a seat. The BJP believes taking along people from all castes. We are not like those who think about just two castes (Mulims and Yadavs).”