The fall and rise of Jitan Ram Manjhi

Much before Amit Shah finalised the seat-sharing pact with all the NDA allies, the BJP chief got a taste of underrated Jitan Ram Manjhi’s persuasive skills when the latter extracted his pound of flesh. Manjhi, till May 2014, was a low profile leader, who served under six chief ministers, before Nitish Kumar anointed him the state’s first Mahadalit chief minister, soon after losing the Lok Sabha battle.

Manjhi’s political journey actually began some 35 years ago when Indira Gandhi rode to power and was sworn in as prime minister in January 1980. One fine day, she asked her trusted lieutenant and former Bihar chief minister Dr Jagannath Mishra to look for a Dalit leader for the then impending Assembly polls in the state. Of all the persons Mishra interviewed, there was one Jitan Ram Manjhi, then in his 30s. Manjhi was then a lowly paid employee in the Post and Telegraph Department.

Manjhi’s name was forwarded to the Congress high command to be included in the list of probables who could contest Assembly election. But his name got deleted even before it could reach the office of Indira Gandhi. Mishra rushed to Delhi, informed her about Manjhi who belonged to the lowliest of the low social groups — Mushahars, a rat-eating impoverished Mahadalit caste — but had shown leadership quality.

Manjhi was given Congress ticket from Fatehpur near Gaya. He won hands down and thus began his political journey which eventually catapulted him as Bihar’s first Mahadalit chief minister.

“Manjhi, unlike Nitish Kumar, is a soft-spoken person and believes in inclusive politics,” averred son of Dr Jagannath Mishra, Nitish Mishra, who served as a Cabinet minister under Nitish Kumar as well as Manjhi.

Manjhi may be at loggerheads with his fellow NDA colleague Ram Vilas Paswan in the battle for Dalit leadership, but since the Mahadalit community to which he belongs is numerically strong (around 13 per cent), he has been given due weightage. In demand now, Manjhi has, therefore, shown no sign of worry even when his son Praveen was caught carrying cash in his vehicle, or when Manjhi himself was asked to vacate Bihar Niwas (in Delhi) while negotiating with the BJP over possible seats.

“We are actually looking at larger goal — to give a crushing defeat to Nitish,” said Manjhi, about his former mentor, without whom he would have remained in oblivion like many other Dalit leaders.