Eyeing to make inroads in Uttar Pradesh, the Lok Janshakti Party on Sunday drew up a roadmap for next year's assembly elections and appointed party chief Ram Vilas Paswan's son and MP Chirag Paswan as poll in - charge for the state.
Chirag's appointment was announced by his father, who is also the union food and consumer affairs minister, at the party's meeting in Varanasi, LJP sources told IANS here.
The LJP meeting in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency is considered politically important as Paswan's party, which has its base primarily in Bihar, could ask for seats to contest the 2017 assembly polls as a National Democratic Alliance constituent.
"Paswan is an important Dalit leader and, therefore, the LJP will be useful to take on the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati, " said a LJP source.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which prefers to go alone in Uttar Pradesh, had an understanding with Apna Dal, a caste - based party catering to Kurmi community, in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking on the occasion, Chirag Paswan, who is MP from Bihar's Jamui, hailed Modi as a "matured youth leader" and, in a veiled attack on UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, said a leader is judged as youth or otherwise based on the basis of his thinking and not by mere age, the source said.
He said a leader is judged on the basis of his thinking and not by his age and termed Modi a "genuine youth" of the country who encouraged lakhs of people to rise on their feet by introducing several schemes like Standup India, Startup India and Skill India to cater to youth welfare.
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