Posting the letter on Twitter, Chirag Paswan, Ram Vilas Paswan’s son, thanked the Prime Minister for his affection towards the late leader.

“Sir, you have honored the work done by him for the society by putting the summary of the whole life of my father in your own words and have shown your affection towards him,” tweeted the MP from Jamui.

Ram Vilas Paswan – minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet and the founder of the Lok Janshakti Party – died on October 8 last year. Chirag Paswan is going by a traditional calendar to hold the first death anniversary of his father on September 12.

Prime Minister further hailed Ram Vilas Paswan as a champion of the poor and Dalits.

“Those looking to serve the nation via the political route must take lessons from the life of Ram Vilas Paswan.  Even after reaching the top, he was always available and cordial with his fellow party workers. He believed in dialogue and cordiality. This is the reason he had such good relations with political leaders across the board,” he added.

Ahead of the event, Chirag Paswan said he had invited top national leaders, including PM Modi, Home minister Amit Shah, and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, for the Patna event.

Speaking to NDTV on Monday, Mr Paswan – who called the fight for control of LJP a “Mahabharata” – also accused Nitish Kumar of trying to split the party by dividing the Paswan community – a subsection of Dalits that form six per cent of Bihar.

“If you see the political journey then it is clear… he has been splitting the Lok Janshakti Party since February 2005, when 27 were elected on our ticket. Subsequently, he kept on splitting our legislature party in Bihar,” Chirag Paswan told NDTV.com.

Mr Paswan referred to the creation of the Mahadalit sub-group in 2006, saying: “That shows his mindset as it was primarily to isolate Paswans and Jatav.”

“It must be kept in mind the LJP has never been a fan of Nitish Kumar’s style of politics. He has harmed the Dalits by creating a sub-group of Mahadalits for his own political gains,” he had said last year before he pulled his party from any alliance with the JDU.

“See how he treated Dalits within his own party, including the unceremonious way Jitan Ram Manjhi has thrown out of power… I will expose the true face of Nitish Kumar and inform Dalits across the country, especially in Bihar, during my roadshow, which will be across all Assembly constituencies,” Mr Paswan added.

The LJP’s seat count dropped precipitously after the 2005 polls – 10 in the repoll in October-November 2005, three in 2010 and two in 2015 (when it was part of the BJP-led NDA). In last year’s election, the LJP claimed just one seat, whose victor has since switched parties.

Bihar’s Paswan community are the core base for the LJP and the relative power of that base was highlighted last year; the LJP won just one seat but, by fielding candidates against every JDU nominee, it wound up eating in that party’s vote share and leaving it second-best against the BJP. And they continue to back Mr Paswan, a poll of LJP leaders by the BJP suggests.

The roadshow expected next month is a display of strength for Chirag Paswan, to underline his status as the political heir of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, his father and one of the tallest Dalit leaders.