The Election Commission of India on Tuesday allotted new names and symbols to the two factions of the Lok Janshakti Party for the bypolls to two Bihar Assembly seats on October 30.

The faction led by Union food processing minister Pashupati Kumar Paras — the brother of party founder and former central minister late Ram Vilas Paswan — will be called Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, and can use the “sewing machine” symbol in the bypolls to Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan constituencies.

The other faction led by MP Chirag Paswan — Ram Vilas’s son — will be called Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and has been given the “helicopter” symbol for the bypolls.

These allotments are an interim order until the EC decides on a dispute between both factions claiming to represent the party.

Last week, the EC disallowed the use of the LJP’s “bungalow” symbol and its name owing to the dispute.

The party split in June after five of its six MPs replaced Chirag with Paras as national president. The BJP recognised the faction led by Paras and made him a minister.

Despite being in the NDA, the LJP under Chirag contested against the candidates of ruling ally Janata Dal United in the 2020 Bihar polls.

The LJP emerged from a split in the remnant Janata Dal in 2000.

In Bihar, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), which merged into the JDU earlier this year, held the “ceiling fan” symbol — which is now not in use by any party in the state.

The Chirag faction’s “helicopter” symbol potentially offers him a slight benefit from former RLSP voters who may confuse the two.

The JDU and RLSP trace their roots to the undivided Janata Party of which Ram Vilas was also a part of. In 2015, six Janata Party descendants — Samajwadi Party, JDU, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Samajwadi Janata Party had unsuccessfully tried to reunite.