Decide on continuance in Grand Alliance: BJP to Manjhi

The BJP in Bihar on Monday asked former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, founding president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha and a disgruntled partner in the opposition Grand Alliance, to take an early decision with regard to his continuance in the five-party coalition.

Party spokesman Nikhil Anand came out with a video message, urging Manjhi who began his independent political journey as an NDA ally in the assembly polls five years ago to act decisively and salvage his prestige which is at stake in the opposition alliance.

"We hear that Manjhi has convened a meeting of his party in frustration over his concerns being repeatedly scoffed at by the RJD. It is distressing to learn that a young leader like Tejashwi Yadav does not deign to pick up the phone when the HAM chief, four decades his senior, tries to call him, Anand said.

The BJP spokesman added that the time has come for the septuagenarian to bite the bullet and put an end to the "fajeehat" (humiliation) he is being subjected to while in the Grand Alliance.

"The time has come for Manjhi to give up serving ultimatums which nobody is heeding and act decisively to salvage his pride", Anand said.

The BJP spokesman was reacting to HAMs announcement that it will be convening an "important meeting in the wake of the lapse of the deadline given by Manjhi for setting up a coordination committee for Grand Alliance" on July 10. Grand Alliance sources alleged that Manjhis tantrums were a pretense and that he was in touch with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), after having made up his mind to return to the NDA.

Notably, Manjhi was previously with the JD(U) and became the chief minister in May, 2014 when Kumar shattered by the partys drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections stepped down taking moral responsibility.

Kumar had handpicked Manjhi for the post after the party, then headed by Sharad Yadav and riven by factions, failed to reach a consensus on a replacement.

However, the protg turned rebellious when the mentor sought return as Chief Minister less than a year later and was ultimately elbowed out.

A party-hopper who has been with the Congress, the undivided Janata Dal and the RJD at various points of time, Manjhi who was by then left high and dry floated HAM with support from disgruntled JD(U) leaders.

The NDA, which was left weakened upon the exit of Nitish Kumar, gladly took HAM under its wing and the party was given more than 20 seats to fight in the 243-strong assembly.

The fledgling outfit performed dismally, with only Manjhi succeeding in winning one of the two seats he had contested. In 2018, less than six months after Kumar returned to the NDA, Manjhi jumped ship and joined the Grand Alliance which was then left with only the RJD and the Congress.

He was promptly rewarded with a legislative council berth for his son Santosh Suman from the RJDs quota.

Known for an uncanny knack of sensing which way the wind was blowing, Manjhi grew uneasy after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the RJD drew a blank and the Grand Alliance got decimated with only Congress managing to win one of the 40 seats in the state.

Grand Alliance sources claim that Manjhis return to NDA got "delayed" because he was asked by BJP to iron out his differences with Nitish Kumar, who has apparently insisted on merger of HAM into the JD(U).

The BJP is understood to have no problems with the merger though it is wary that the wily JD(U) chief may use the return of Manjhi a prominent Dalit leader to undermine Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP in the assembly polls.

The chief minister is said to be of the view that the LJP does not have much of a support base and, hence, need not be given too many seats in the upcoming assembly polls.

The Union ministers party looks up to the BJP and hopes that the saffron party would intervene and help the Paswans in getting their due, in recognition of their steadfast support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.