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Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas president Chirag Paswan says Rahul Gandhi's refusal to meet his father despite months of trying was a key reason for Ram Vilas Paswan leaving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party just before the 2014 elections.
Asked about his opinion of Rahul Gandhi, Chirag Paswan told PTI editors in an interaction at the agency's headquarters that the Congress leader has of late begun taking his responsibility “a bit more seriously” and criticised his recent speech in Parliament as unbecoming of the leader of the opposition.
Chirag Paswan then recalled that he and his father had often met Sonia Gandhi to discuss the future of their party in the UPA alliance.
Sonia Gandhi suggested that Ram Vilas Paswan meet her son.
The senior Paswan sought an appointment and waited for more than three months but Rahul Gandhi did not relent, said Chirag Paswan, who at that time too was keen to leave the UPA and join the National Democratic Alliance.
Ram Vilas Paswan, however, was still keen to remain in the UPA, and wanted to discuss that with Rahul Gandhi, the son said.
“It was good for me though. Had the meeting taken place, it would have been difficult for me to convince my father to join the BJP-led NDA,” he said, noting that he preferred a tie-up with the saffron party due to his admiration and respect for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Till 2013, we were in the UPA and I remember very clearly that my father was not ready to leave the alliance. He wanted to continue in that alliance and it was extremely difficult for me to convince him to change the alliance.”
The decision of the senior Paswan, a leading grassroots Dalit leader who passed away in 2020, to break ranks with the UPA and tie up with the BJP was one of the headlines of the poll season in 2014 and helped the BJP build momentum and expand its alliance in an election where it rode the Modi wave to win its maiden majority in the Lok Sabha.
Chirag Paswan revealed that the Gandhi family scion was one of the reasons why his party, then undivided and known as Lok Janshakti Party, quit the UPA in 2014.
He said, “I think one of the reasons why my father left the UPA was because he could not meet Rahul ji.”
“My father kept trying for a good three-four months to meet Rahul ji and not even a single meeting could take place. I think that was one of the reasons why my father was very upset. Despite being one of the senior leaders and an important ally in the UPA, he was not given time by Rahul Gandhi to meet.”
Since then, Chirag Paswan said, he has seen some change in Rahul Gandhi's attitude to politics.
Rahul Gandhi showed a lot of reluctance in politics initially but has demonstrated signs of taking on more responsibility of late, he added.
He, however, criticised the LOP's speech in the Lok Sabha for its “personal attacks” on Modi and the Chair and added that it disrespected different religions as well.
Asked about his admiration for Modi, Chirag Paswan said he had begun looking up to him when his party was not part of the NDA. His connect with the prime minister was the key reason for his decision to join the alliance, he added.
The Food Processing Industries minister said he has learnt from his father to maintain good personal relations with leaders of different parties, noting that he often touched Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's feet to seek his blessings even when he used to be critical of his policies.
Chirag Paswan described Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav as a father-like figure and his son Tejashvi Yadav as a younger brother, while insisting that this was at a personal level.