Jitan Ram Manjhi, the mercurial Dalit leader who pulled his party out of Bihar’s mahagathbandhan on Tuesday, is being wooed to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the 2024 general election, with party sources saying that he is being offered a Governor’s position for himself, as well as a Lok Sabha ticket for his son. The party’s executive committee is likely to meet this weekend to finalise a decision.
The former Bihar Chief Minister and founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) had recently said that he would not leave the current Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, come what may. Just a few days later, however, on June 13, his son Santosh Kumar Suman quit his post in the Bihar cabinet, and the party left the ruling alliance. “There was pressure from Mr. Kumar to merge our party into the JD(U) and that was not acceptable for Mr. Manjhi and his party,” Mr. Suman told journalists.
However, Mr. Manjhi is said to have taken this decision based on some lucrative offers from the BJP ahead of next year’s general election: the Governorship of a northeastern State, and a Lok Sabha ticket for his son from Gaya, which is Mr. Manjhi’s home district.
‘Destroyed Dalit community’
Mr. Suman’s resignation as the Minister for Bihar’s Department for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Welfare on June 13 was promptly accepted, but spurred top leaders from the ruling Janata Dal (United) to huddle together at the CM’s official residence. They also summoned Ratnesh Sada, JD(U) Dalit MLA from the Sonbarsha Assembly constituency, who is tipped to be Mr. Suman’s replacement in a Cabinet reshuffle scheduled for June 16. Coming out of the CM’s residence, a visibly elated Mr. Sada slammed Mr. Manjhi for “destroying the Dalit community of the State”.
However, an unfazed Mr. Manjhi reiterated on Wednesday that he had come out of the alliance with Mr. Kumar as it was a question of his party’s very “existence”, adding, “And when I chose to come out of the alliance with Mr Kumar, I’m out of mahagathbandhan as well.”
According to party sources, Mr. Manjhi has called for his party’s executive committee to meet on June 18, ahead of an all-party meeting of non-BJP leaders, slated to be held in Patna on June 23. “Even in the all-Opposition parties meeting on June 23, our party was not invited,” rued the veteran Dalit leader, who was Chief Minister of the State for nine months in 2014.
Anti-Hindutva history
Interestingly, Mr. Manjhi has previously lashed out at the BJP’s Hindutva politics, saying that Lord Rama was an “imaginary” figure, not a historical one. “I don’t consider epic Ramayana to be a true story, nor do I think Lord Rama was a great man or a historical figure,” said Mr. Manjhi, also slamming upper caste communities — the BJP’s traditional support base — as “foreigners and descendants of Aryan invaders”.
Mr. Manjhi had faced criticism when he met Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah in Delhi on April 13, and Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on June 8. “What was wrong in meeting these two leaders? In a democratic country, anyone can meet anyone,” Mr. Suman said, after his resignation. Asked about likely offers from the BJP to his father, Mr. Suman did not deny the reports, but quipped: “These things have not been discussed yet… We will chalk out our strategies”.
Political analysts in Bihar said that Mr. Manjhi has a well-earned reputation as a hard political bargainer with a mercurial posture. “Without having some lucrative offers from the BJP, he would not have come out of the grand alliance fold ahead of the LS poll,” said analyst Ajay Kumar. “It is clear he is going to the NDA fold after his party’s executive committee meeting on June 18 and the rest will be clear as well as the LS poll approaches,” he added.
