Need to strengthen INDIA to defeat NDA in Bihar: RLJP chief Pashupati Kumar Paras

Patna (Bihar) [India], April 15 (ANI): Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) chief Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday emphasised the need to strengthen the INDIA bloc to defeat the NDA alliance, ahead of upcoming assembly elections in Bihar.
Paras hailed the meeting between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as "very successful" and a "good start" for the INDIA alliance.
"The meeting held between Tejashwi Yadav and Mallikarjun Kharge today was very successful. This is a good start," Paras said while speaking to ANI in Patna.
According to Paras, the INDIA bloc should unite in 38 districts across Bihar by the end of April, engaging with people and presenting their views. The party plans to strengthen its organisation and address supporters' problems in Bihar's districts by August.
"By August, our party plans to go to the districts of Bihar to strengthen the organisation and solve the supporters' problems. Certainly, to defeat the NDA alliance, the INDIA alliance will have to be strengthened, and all the small parties will have to be brought together," said the RLJP chief.
He added that the people of Bihar are in a mood for change, with the Dalit community expressing anger towards the NDA alliance. "People in Bihar are in a mood for change. We have seen that the Dalit community is angry with the NDA alliance," Paras added.
Notably, on Monday, Paras announced that his party is quitting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Speaking in Patna, Bihar, Paras claimed that despite being a loyal ally since 2014, the party was treated unfairly during the Lok Sabha elections due to its Dalit roots.
The RLJP has started a membership drive and is preparing for the upcoming assembly elections, in which it will contest all 243 seats in Bihar.
Earlier on Tuesday, Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge emphasised that the state will be freed from the BJP and its "opportunist" alliance in the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls.
In a post on X, Kharge posted a video of meeting Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav and others in New Delhi to begin preparations for the Bihar Assembly polls, scheduled to be held later this year.
"This time, change is certain in Bihar. Today, we met the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav and discussed the strengthening of the Mahagathbandhan. In the coming elections, we will give the people of Bihar a strong, positive, just and welfare-oriented option. Bihar will be freed from the BJP and its opportunistic alliance," Kharge said.
"Youth, farmers-labourers, women, backwards, extremely backward and people of all other sections of the society want the Mahagathbandhan government," the Congress President said.
A high stakes battle is expected to take place in Bihar, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA); consisting of Janata Dal (United) led by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and the Bharatiya Janata Party fighting against the Mahagathbandan; consisting of Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and left parties.
The elections in the state are expected to take place between October-November, however the dates for the polls have not been announced yet. (ANI)