Paswan is an opportunist: Senior BJP leader

Bihar BJP leader Ashwani Choubey said such a tie-up would be suicidal for party

Amid hectic talks on alliance between BJP and LJP, senior Bihar BJP leader Ashwani Choubey today said such a tie-up would be "suicidal" for the party.

"Ramvilas Paswan is an opportunist...Any tie up with him will be suicidal for the BJP," Choubey told reporters at Patna Airport on way to Delhi.

"When Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had fallen by one vote he did not extend support to the NDA government," Choubey, a senior minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet, said.

In a hard-hitting response to the LJP chief, the MLA from Bhagalpur and a member of state party core committee, said there was "no point entering into alliance with a person whose politics is based on the principle of promoting parivar (family)".

"Whenever the party has made such tie-up, we became weak," the arch supporter of Narendra Modi said.

"One can understand if a tie-up is forged with good people professing good ideology...We believe in the ideology of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. But there is no rationale in entering into an unprincipled alliance with people like Paswan," he said.

Choubey said if party asks him, he was ready to contest elections from his native Bhagalpur seat.

On sitting MP Shahnawaz Hussain, he said, "Kisanganj helped him get ministerial post at the Centre for six times...He shall contest polls from there."

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav and state party president Mangal Pandey have gone to Delhi for deliberations.