By Rohit Kumar Singh: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief and MP Chirag Paswan attended the Iftar party hosted by former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav on April 9. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was also present.

Soon after the event, several ruling party leaders urged Paswan to join the Mahagathbandhan against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Chirag’s presence at the Iftar party of Rabri Devi purportedly gave BJP the jitters as minister Nityanand Rai paid a sudden visit to Chirag Paswan’s Patna residence on Thursday night.

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Chirag is considered close to the BJP and on several occasions, he has claimed to be the “Hanuman” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Chirag doesn’t want the BJP to take him for granted and wanted to keep his options open so that he could bargain hard with the saffron party during the seat-sharing discussion.

It may be mentioned that the LJP (Ram Vilas) is not formally part of the NDA at present, but may join it in the next few months.