Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lost his cool again in the State Assembly on Thursday and said it was due to his “stupidity” that he had made Jitan Ram Manjhi the Chief Minister of the State. Mr. Manjhi, now president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S), became Chief Minister of the State in May 2014 when he was with Janata Dal (United) and Mr. Kumar had stepped down from the post on moral grounds following his party’s drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Mr. Manjhi, later, said on X (formerly Twitter): “If you [Mr. Kumar] think that you had made me the Chief Minister, it is your mistake. You fled from the chair when JD(U) MLAs started opposing you. You can only attack a Dalit to conceal your impotency and if you have the guts, you can attack Lalan Singh [JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh] who was orchestrating an ‘operation’ against you”.
HAM-S leader Mr. Manjhi has joined hands with the BJP and his party became a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre after his son Santosh Manjhi resigned from Mr. Kumar’s Cabinet as Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister in June 2023. Since then, Mr. Manjhi has been slamming CM Kumar and his government on several issues.
