Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan I File photo | Photo Credit: ANI

New Delhi: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s estranged daughter threatened to sit on dharna against her father for the latter’s veiled jibe at former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi. In an apparent reference Rabri Devi, Paswan on Friday said any uneducated person can be the chief minister nowadays. Taking offence to the statement, Asha Paswan, whose husband Anil Sadhu is part of Rabri Devi's party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), threatened to sit on a dharna or sit-in protest with other women in front of her father’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) office in Patna, unless he apologised.

Asha even alleged that her father left her mother and herself because they were uneducated. “Ram Vilas ji left us because we were uneducated. He should apologise for his remarks as he has insulted all the uneducated women,” she was quoted by the news agency ANI as saying.

Asha is Paswan’s daughter from his first wife Raj Kumari Devi whom he divorced in 1981 before marrying Reena in 1983.

Paswan’s LJP is contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)]. On Friday, he attacked the RJD for opposing the NDA-led government’s bill of 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections in the general category.

"They believe in mere sloganeering and making an 'angootha chhap' (illiterate) the chief minister of the state," Paswan said without taking any names. The remark was seen directed at Rabri Devi who was made the chief minister of Bihar in 1997 when her husband had to step down following imminent arrest for involvement in fodder scam. The move sparked a row and Rabri was attacked by the opposition which made her education an issue.

