Chirag Paswan on Sunday announced a roadshow in Bihar next month, seeking to demonstrate mass support and claim control of the Lok Janshakti Party after being pushed into a corner by his uncle.

Chirag held a meeting of party office bearers here on Sunday and claimed 90 per cent of the working committee members of the LJP were with him.

Early this week, Chirag had been taken by surprise when four of the six MPs of the LJP elected his uncle Pasupati Paras as the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, displacing him. The rebels later elected his uncle the president of the LJP.

After the meeting on Sunday, Chirag told reporters he would hold the roadshow across Bihar in July to mark the birth anniversary of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, who was the party’s founder and a Dalit leader. The meeting also decided to demand Bharat Ratna for Ram Vilas.

“My father’s birth anniversary falls on July 5.… So, we have decided to launch an Aashirvad Yatra from July 5 from Hajipur,” Chirag told reporters. Hajipur is the Lok Sabha constituency that Ram Vilas had represented many times.

Chirag appears to be planning the roadshow and the demand for Bharat Ratna for his father to not only assert his claim over the party formed by his father but also to send a message to the BJP to not back his uncle.

He has already petitioned Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recant his decision of declaring Paras as leader of the LJP and is also gearing up for a legal battle to claim the party formed by his father.

The rebellion by the uncle is widely seen to have been pushed by Bihar chief minister and JDU boss Nitish Kumar. It is being seen as a hit-back for Chirag’s move to contest separately in the October-November Bihar polls and harm the JDU.

The BJP so far has maintained silence over the developments in the LJP. Chirag now wants to prove that he carries the legacy of his father and so he can’t be ignored.