Lok Janshakti Party MP Chirag Paswan, who is in a tussle with his uncle over control of the party, on Sunday said he would hold a roadshow and travel across Bihar next month, NDTV reported. He said the roadshow will commence on July 5, the birth anniversary of his father Ram Vilas Paswan, who died last year.

“We have decided to take out an aashirvaad yatra [march for blessings] from Hajipur,” Paswan said. “The yatra will pass through all districts of Bihar. We need more love and blessings from the people.”

Ram Vilas Paswan had represented the Hajipur constituency in the Lok Sabha on eight occasions.

The announcement of the roadshow came after a meeting of the party’s national executive on Sunday afternoon. The national executive condemned the use of the party’s symbol by the faction led by Chirag Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who along with four other MPs staged a coup last week, The Indian Express reported.

After the meeting, Chirag Paswan claimed that “90% of the party’s working committee members” were backing him. “Except Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, the presidents of all other states are with us,” he said. “There were only nine people with him [Paras]. Tell them how many people were in their working committee.”

Paras, however, called the meeting an assembly of “rented crowd”, reported PTI. He added that the Election Commission will now decide which faction is the real LJP.

Infighting in LJP

Five of the six LJP MPs revolted against Paswan on Monday and told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla that they have chosen 71-year-old Paras as the party’s leader in Parliament. The move was effectively a coup against Paswan, who is the sixth LJP MP. Birla had accepted Paras as the floor leader of the LJP in the Lower House.

On Tuesday, the LJP faction, led by Chirag Paswan, expelled Paras and the four other MPs who had revolted against him. This came soon after the rebel leaders removed Paswan as the national president in an emergency meeting of the LJP national working committee. Paswan was removed on the party’s principle of “one man, one post”, the rebels said.

On the same day, the Paras-led faction made Suraj Bhan Singh the working president of the party and authorised him to convene a meeting of LJP’s national council within five days to elect a new president. Paras was then elected the new chief of the party.