Jitan Ram Manjhi extends support to Nitish Kumar

India

oi-Deepika S

Patna, Aug 09:
Hindustani
Awam
Morcha
(HAM)
president
Jitan
Ram
Manjhi
has
extended
support
to
JD(U)
chief
Nitish
Kumar,
who
has
walked
out
of
NDA
alliance
and
resigned
as
Bihar
Chief
Minister.

Active
in
politics
since
the
1980s,
Manjhi
has
served
as
a
minister
under
many
chief
ministers
although
his
moment
of
glory
came
in
May,
2014
when
Nitish
Kumar,
owning
moral
responsibility
for
the
JD(U)’s
debacle
in
Lok
Sabha
polls,
gave
up
the
chief
minister’s
post.

After
JD(U)
rank
and
file
failed
to
reach
a
consensus
on
the
replacement
for
its
de
facto
leader,
Kumar
intervened
and
backed
Manjhi,
who
was
seen
as
a
loyalist
and
could
also
serve
the
purpose
of
sending
across
the
message
that
the
leader
promoted
a
Dalit
upon
stepping
down.

However,
the
months
that
followed
bore
witness
to
a
huge
political
churning
in
Bihar
and
Kumar
forged
an
alliance
with
arch-rival
Lalu
Prasad.
Manjhi
had,
by
that
time,
come
to
be
seen
as
unsteady
and
accused
by
many
of
having
become
too
chummy
with
the
BJP.

Do
you
have
any
ideology?
Chirag
Paswan
slams
Nitish
Kumar,
demands
President’s
rule
in
Bihar

After
Manjhi
was
commanded
by
the
party
to
step
down
and
make
way
for
the
return
of
his
mentor,
he
tried
to
put
up
a
semblance
of
revolt,
but
later
resigned
realising
that
numbers
were
not
on
his
side.
He
also
quit
the

JD(U)
along
with
some
dissidents
who
had
grown
averse
to
Nitish
Kumar
and
the
breakaway
group
came
to
be
known
as
HAM
which
the
BJP-led
NDA,
then
shorn
of
a
strong
alliance
in
Bihar,
gladly
accommodated.

The
Grand
Alliance
that
came
into
being
as
a
result
of
the
Lalu-Nitish
alliance,
however,
inflicted
a
crushing
defeat
on
the
NDA
in
the
2015
assembly
polls.
Manjhi,
who
was
in
a
state
of
limbo,
feared
further
marginalisation
when
Kumar
returned
to
the
NDA
in
2017.

The
HAM
founder
quit
the
NDA,
joined
the
RJD-Congress
alliance
and
was
quickly
rewarded
with
a
legislative
council
berth
for
his
son
by
Lalu
Prasad’s
party
which
had
sufficient
numbers
in
the
assembly.
However,
he
soon
grew
impatient
with
the
RJD
and
its
heir
apparent
Tejashwi
Yadav
and
broke
away
ahead
of
the
2020
assembly
polls.

His
return
to
the
NDA
had
led
to
speculations
of
HAM’s
merger
with
the
JD(U)
which
did
not
take
place
though
Manjhi
himself
never
ruled
out
such
a
possibility.