Patna: Days after Union minister Chirag Paswan announced his decision to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, his party, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), on Thursday declared it has begun large-scale poll preparations for all 243 seats in the state. The decision was taken during the state working committee meeting chaired by state president Raju Tiwari and attended by the party’s Bihar in charge, Arun Bharti, who is also Chirag’s brother-in-law.The LJP last made a significant impact in the Feb-March 2005 assembly elections when it won 29 seats after contesting 178. It played the role of “kingmaker” but chose not to support either the RJD-led alliance or the NDA under Nitish, which eventually led to President’s Rule. Six months later, the NDA formed the govt following the by-elections.Thursday’s meeting, attended by MPs Arun Bharti, Veena Devi, Shambhavi Choudhary, parliamentary board chairman Hulas Pandey and national general secretary Satyanand Sharma, passed eight proposals. What stood out was the party’s declaration of preparing for all seats in the 2025 elections.“The party unanimously passes the proposal that, in line with the public statement of its national president Chirag Paswan, it will prepare with full strength and enthusiasm for all 243 assembly seats for the upcoming assembly elections,” the resolution said.The party also announced it will hold a ‘Bahujan-Bhim Sankalp Samagam’ on June 29 at Rajgir in Nalanda, the home district of CM Nitish Kumar. Chirag will address the rally. “The meeting is aimed at strengthening constitutional rights and social justice and increasing political awareness among the deprived classes,” the party said. “It will serve as both a platform for organisational expansion and worker empowerment and a strategic move ahead of the upcoming elections,” it added.The meeting voiced serious concern over the “rising crimes” against dalits and criticised the state administration. It also expressed alarm over the cancellation of MGNREGA job cards without prior notice, which it said had pushed many dalits, OBCs and deprived communities into a survival crisis.