Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday mocked the Congress for eyeing the prime minister’s post when it could not manage to win the number of seats required in the Lok Sabha for the Leader of Opposition post, PTI reported.

“I have been telling it for past three years that there is no vacancy for the post of the prime minister in 2019 and hence they [opponents] should vie for Leader of Opposition chair,” Paswan was quoted as saying. “But Congress has not even got seats to be able to get the leader of Opposition post again.”

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A party must have 10% of the total seats of the lower house to occupy the Leader of Opposition chair. Elections were held for 542 seats, which means a party must secure 55 seats to get the post. The 16th Lok Sabha also did not have a Leader of Opposition as no party had secured 10% of the total seats. The Congress was the single largest Opposition party with 44 seats after the 2014 General Elections.

When asked if his son Chirag Paswan would be made a minister in the new government, Ram Vilas Paswan said Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah had offered his son a ministerial berth in 2014, but he had refused it due to lack of experience. Chirag Paswan was elected for a second term this time from the Jamui seat in Bihar.

Paswan criticised Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav for attacking Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the election campaigns. “He [Yadav] should have taken care of his [Kumar’s] age and the prestige and honour that he enjoys.”

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Yadav had referred to Kumar as “paltu chacha” or turncoat uncle to criticise him for leaving the Grand Alliance and joining the BJP again in Bihar in July 2017.

Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party won six seats in Bihar, while the BJP secured 17 seats. Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), which is also a part of the National Democratic Alliance, got 16 seats.