Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said on Thursday that his party would possibly field candidates for all 403 seats in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections if it could not work out an alliance with the ruling BJP-led NDA. He cited Nagaland, where the party contested alone in 2023 and won two seats.
“But Nagaland is an example where I contested the elections without an alliance. I have two MLAs in Nagaland. Paswan attended an event at a local college organised by the party as part of its ongoing political outreach in UP.
If an alliance cannot be worked out, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will possibly contest candidates on all 403 seats,” he said.
Chirag Paswan’s party’s own record in Uttar Pradesh is thin. Under Chirag’s father, Ram Vilas Paswan, the undivided LJP won a single seat in the 2002 Assembly polls. It contested some seats in 2007 and 2012 but drew a blank. In the last polls in 2022, the LJP(RV) got zero seats and 0.01% of the total votes, according to Election Commission data.
The remarks on the alliance’s fate repeated the position Paswan set out in Patna on Tuesday. The LJP(RV) draws its core support in Bihar from the Dalit Paswan community. In Uttar Pradesh, its push has in the past been aimed at Dalit voters outside the Jatav community, with a particular focus on the Pasi community. The Jatavs have traditionally backed Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. The BJP has had a similar focus, while the Samajwadi Party is trying that too.
He also said he expected the LJP(RV) to establish itself as a strong contender and alternative as the elections approached, and announced that the party’s foundation day would be celebrated in Lucknow on November 28. Dalits or Scheduled Castes make up about 21 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s population.
In Lucknow last month, Paswan said the party had identified its priority and “A category” seats in Uttar Pradesh but declined to reveal how many it was seeking, saying it would be unfair to alliance partners to make the details public.
