The first death anniversary of former Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday turned out to be a show of strength between his brother and Union minister for food processing industries Pashupati Kumar Paras and son Chirag Paswan, an MP.

While Paras, who heads the Rashtriya LJP, observed the occasion in Patna, Chirag, leader of LJP (Ram Vilas), did so in Delhi. Top leaders from various parties chose to attend the functions according to their inclination towards he ruling dispensation or the Opposition.

Leaders from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) attended the event organised by Paras, while Chirag’s programme attracted top Opposition leaders of the country, apart from a few from the BJP.

Paras had engineered a split in the LJP in June this year, walking away with five of its six Lok Sabha members, leaving Chirag to fend for himself. Later on, Paras was inducted as a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers. The Election Commission recently allotted names and symbols to the two separate entities — sewing machine for the Rashtriya LJP and helicopter for the LJP (Ram Vilas) — for the bypolls to two Assembly seats on October 30.

Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan, chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief ministers and BJP leaders Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi as well as several other leaders from the NDA went to the programme organised by Paras and paid homage to Ram Vilas.

“We have gathered here to pay tributes to Ram Vilasji. People will remember the work done by him and his popularity will always remain. I had personal relations with him and I will always respect him. He passed away last year, but it was not an age to go. We will do whatever is needed to carry his memory among the masses,” Nitish told mediapersons.

Nitish had not attended the first barsi (first death anniversary according to the Hindu lunar calendar) organised by Chirag in Patna in September.

Both the leaders do not see eye to eye since Chirag fielded candidates against Nitish’s Janata Dal United in the 2020 Assembly elections — a move that the JDU has blamed for its poor performance. The JDU managed to win just 43 seats while the undivided LJP bagged just one seat.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s eldest son and MLA Tej Pratap Yadav, said to be estranged from his party, also attended the event in Patna and paid tributes to the leader.

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Lalu and his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and several others attended the programme organised by Chirag at 12 Janpath in New Delhi.

Chirag welcomed everybody with verve on the occasion, but stayed away from making political comments in public.

However, the presence of the senior Opposition leaders gave credence to the speculations that they were reaching out to Chirag to bring him into their fold. In fact, Lalu and his younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav have been urging Chirag to switch over to their camp.

The event at 12 Janpath also saw Rahul holding the hand of Lalu and having a hearty chat. It also laid to rest the speculation about bitterness between their parties over the bypolls to two Assembly seats in Bihar.