Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United on Thursday inducted 208 senior leaders of the Lok Janshakti Party, executing what many said was revenge for the Chirag Paswan-led outfit’s move to queer the pitch for the JDU in the Assembly elections last year.

Sources said this was just the beginning of Nitish’s “operation” against the LJP and that several of its MPs and the lone MLA of the party could follow suit.

Those who joined the JDU included dozens of state general secretaries, 18 district presidents, district vice-presidents, heads of various cells of the party, spokespersons, leaders of frontal outfit Dalit Sena and many of those who contested the Assembly elections in October-November.

The induction was done in the presence of JDU national president R.C.P. Singh and state president Umesh Kushwaha.

“We assure that all the newcomers will be accorded appropriate honour and respect in the JDU. Our party rewards people on the basis of their merit. Ours is the only party with a socialist ideology where family and dynastic politics is not practiced,” Singh said while addressing the LJP leaders.

The JDU national president pointed out that several other parties claiming to follow the socialist ideology had reserved the topmost posts for the family members of their key leaders or founders.

Chirag Paswan. File picture

The prominent LJP leaders who embraced the JDU included Keshav Singh, Dinanath Kranti, Ramnath Raman, Parasnath Gupta and Subhash Paswan.

Keshav alleged that LJP chief and Jamui MP Chirag owned eight companies and four trusts, was not paying the income tax that he should have and was giving prominent positions in the party to builders, scamsters and non-political persons. Keshav said his party would release documentary evidence.

Another LJP leader who joined the JDU, Ramnath Raman, claimed that Chirag was cheating the party leaders and promoting people from Punjab. Chirag has relatives in Punjab.

JDU founder and chief minister Nitish has held Chirag and his LJP responsible for the poor performance of his party in the Assembly elections. The JDU could win only 43 seats out of the 115 it contested in the 243-member House. In comparison, ally BJP won 74 of 110 seats, relegating the JDU to the second position in the NDA.

Chirag and his LJP, which were also a part of the NDA till a couple of weeks prior to the Bihar polls, had criticised Nitish for several months before the elections. The LJP fielded candidates in all the seats that the JDU contested, cutting into the votes of Nitish’s party. Many had suspected that the effort had the BJP’s patronage.

Nitish and other senior JDU leaders had vented their ire against the LJP several times after the election results, and there was speculation that they would focus on breaking Chirag’s party to avenge the poor performance.

The LJP was founded by Ram Vilas Paswan in 2000 and came to be considered as the foremost party catering to the interests of the Dalits. The party has six Lok Sabha members and an MLA in Bihar.

The LJP tried to play down Thursday’s developments. Spokesperson Ashraf Ansari said: “Nitish Kumar and his JDU have committed yet another scam. Only 10 or 12 persons who joined it were earlier members of the LJP and had been thrown out for indulging in anti-party activities. The rest of the 208 people who have been masqueraded as LJP leaders were never in our party.”