Less than a week after the Election Commission (EC) decided to freeze the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) symbol and the party name, it announced new names to the two factions led by Lok Sabha member Chirag Paswan and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras. Paswan’s faction will now be known as Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and will be represented by the helicopter symbol in the upcoming bypolls in Bihar. The rival faction led by his uncle has been allotted the name Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party and the sewing machine as election symbol. “Neither of the two groups… shall be permitted to use the name of the party “Lok Janshakti Party” simplicitor,” the Election Commission stated in its order passed Saturday. The EC’s ruling to freeze the party name and symbols is an interim order that will be in effect till the dispute is finally settled. The EC had added that “neither of the two groups shall be permitted to use the symbol “bungalow”, reserved for LJP. Chirag Paswan-led faction has announced its decision to field candidates in two Bihar Assembly seats in Tarapur and Kusheshwar Sthan where bypolls will be held. The faction said the coming elections would settle its claim of being the “real LJP”. The other faction has said that it would not contest the seats as they were won by the NDA. The contesting claims to power by the rival factions came to the fore in June, with both Chirag and his uncle claiming control over the LJP.
