Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) president Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday resigned from the Modi cabinet, alleging “injustice” after his party was not included in the seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.

RLJP was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but was not given any seats in the upcoming general elections.

“Injustice has been done to us and our party. Therefore, I resign from the post of Union minister,” he said.

The development comes a day after the BJP and its allies announced the seat-sharing details in Bihar. The Chirag Paswan faction has been given five tickets – Hajipur, Jamui, Vaishali, Samastipur and Khagaria.

Paras was unhappy with the BJP’s decision to back his nephew Chirag Paswan – who has floated his own party, the LJP (Ram Vilas) – for Lok Sabha tickets, including from the family bastion of Hajipur. Paras represented the constituency and staked claim to it.

“Yesterday, the NDA alliance announced the list of 40 candidates for Bihar Lok Sabha… Our party had five MPs and I worked with utmost sincerity,” Paras told media persons at the press conference in Delhi.

He and five other RLJP MPs, including his son Prince Raj, had sided with the BJP in 2021 when Chirag Paswan decided to contest the state assembly polls on his own. He was also against the Janata Dal (United) being made part of the NDA in Bihar.

Following a bitter fallout between Chirag and the JD(U), which is also now part of the NDA, Paras and his faction removed Chirag from the position of the parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha and publicly distanced themselves from the feud.

The BJP, which is contesting on 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar where polling will be held in seven phases beginning April 19, is yet to comment on Paras’ resignation. The JD(U) will contest on 16, while one seat each has been allocated to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha.