The Election Commission on Saturday froze the Lok Janshakti Party symbol ahead of the bye-polls to two Assembly seats in Bihar on October 30, ANI reported.
In an interim order, the commission said both factions of the Lok Janshakti Party, led Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, would not be allowed to use the bungalow symbol or the party’s name. Paswan and Paras are locked in a tussle since June.
The Election Commission asked Paswan and Paras to choose interim names and symbols for the bye-polls by 1 pm on Monday. It also directed both the factions to submit documents supporting their claim to represent the party by November 5.
In June, the Lok Janshakti Party plunged into a crisis after five of its six Lok Sabha MPs rebelled against Paswan. The rebel MPs had told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they have chosen Paras as the party’s leader in Parliament. The development, effectively a coup against Paswan, came less than a year after his father and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan died in October. He was the founder of the Lok Janshakti Party.
After Birla named Paras as the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party in the Lok Sabha, Chirag Paswan had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the move.
On Friday, the court dismissed his plea, noting that the Speaker has the power to regulate the internal affairs of the House.
Paswan claimed that 66 out of the 75 members in the Lok Janshakti Party national executive support him. Therefore, he said, Paras’ claim of being the national president will not hold up before the Election Commission or in court.
In July, Paras was inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet as the Union minister of food processing industries.
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