Less than a year after its founder Ram Vilas Paswan passed away, the party he founded is threatening to implode. As always happen in such typical political battles, both party’s national president Chirag Paswan, son of Ramvilas Paswan and five MPs who were bent upon rebellion have expelled each other from the party. LJP or Lok Jan Shakti party is a unique example of family-based parties where after the death of founder leaders if the successor lacks political acumen, can jeopardize his party along with himself.  In such parties, the political ambition of the successor is always covered by social justice. In some cases, it can be to fulfill the dead father’s dream or in some cases, it is state or cast pride. The cover can be anything, but the ultimate intention is to grab power by sidelining people who have worked for the party for so many years. This is common in such parties that, blood relatives of founder always successful in getting the top post bypassing the workers who only waste their lives in providing Bileri bottles to the leaders on stage or picking mattresses after the public gathering. Party leaders earn huge supporters and on that basis grab high posts in politics but when it comes to the selecting successor, the founder never thinks beyond his son, daughter and finally nephew. Chirag Paswan was elected after the death of Ramvilas Paswan as a tradition in Indian polity. But nobody thought that, he lacks the political acumen which his father was a master at. So, he has to pay the price now as he has been dethroned from the post of national president of his five MPs out of six. Last week, five MPs of the Lok Janshakti Party came together under his brother Pashupati Kumar Paras, to oust his son and national president, Chirag Paswan, from the post of leader of the party in the Lok Sabha. On Tuesday, Chirag expelled the five MPs from the party while the rebels claimed that they had removed Chirag from the post of national president of the LJP. Now, Chirag’s decision has no meaning as he has no place to go. The disquiet in the LJP has all the trappings of a succession battle. Political parties in India, especially regional outfits built around charismatic leaders, tend to witness a leadership tussle after the founder’s death. The LJP was born as the expression of the national ambitions of Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader, who identified with Lohiaite socialists and built his career within the Janata Parivar. When the emergence of Mandal politics in the 1990s forced a recalibration of socialist/Janata politics and emphasized the assertion of caste identity, Paswan sought his own niche. The LJP provided a platform for Paswan to organize Dalits, particularly in Bihar, with his own community of Dusadhs providing the core support. Here what happens with Chirag is not important, but Dalit share in national politics and its relevance has been diminishing gradually is more worrisome. Secondly, the regional or parties based on one family always suffer after the death of founder as the successor lacks the political acumen of his father. Another case of such lack of acumen is Tejaswi Yadav. He was getting huge support from voters in the Bihar assembly elections. But, he conceded Congress more seats than actually the seats would have been given. As a result, Congress failed to win seats due to lackluster leadership and Tejaswi remained far from power. Such a lack of acumen is evident in many political successors. Not all successors are lacking political sagacity. Some are more clever than their founder fathers. But, they are very less in number. Chirag Paswan is an example for such one family-based parties to avoid the mistakes not to repeat.