Media reports on Wednesday claimed former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will rejoin the National Democratic Alliance soon. News agency ANI reported Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will join the NDA on Thursday.
There had been speculation for months Manjhi would reconcile with the NDA, which he left in 2018. The speculation increased after Manjhi left the 'Mahagathbandan' alliance led by the RJD last month over a dispute over number of seats HAM would contest in the impending Bihar elections.
The HAM had called for a meeting of non-NDA and non-Grand Alliance parties, including Jan Adhikar Party of former MP Pappu Yadav, on Wednesday to discuss the strategy for the Bihar elections that is due in October-November. However, the meeting was postponed. Though no reason was given for postponing the meeting, a senior leader of the HAM told PTI there is no point in engaging in any such discussions when encouraging talks have already been held with the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Manjhi met Kumar last week and is believed to have held talks on seat sharing.
The BJP also seems to have given the green signal to Manjhi's comeback to the grouping with its Bihar unit head, Sanjay Jaiswal, on Saturday saying that whoever expresses faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership is welcome to the alliance. HAM national spokesperson Danish Rizwan told PTI that the Nitish Kumar government has done a lot for the poor, dalits and minorities in the state. Ironically, when leaving the NDA in 2018, Manjhi had claimed the Nitish Kumar government was "anti-poor".
The HAM chief is the lone member of his party in the Assembly. But, induction of Manjhi would help NDA's outreach to dalits, particularly other than Paswans, which is the support base of the LJP. Dalits in Bihar are over 16 per cent of the electorate and about 40 seats in the 243-member house are reserved for them.
HAM wants to contest 15-20 seats, mostly in the Magadh region to which Manjhi belongs. But the JD(U) is willing to leave for it 10-12 seats, the reports have said.
Manjhi had quit the JD(U) in 2015 after being forced to step down as the chief minister to make way for the return of Kumar. Kumar had resigned as chief minister following the JD(U)’s drubbing in the 2014 Parliamentary election.
Later, he formed the HAM and contested 21 seats in the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections as an NDA constituent.
