Winds of change in Bihar politics

The move by two sulking leaders of different parties a couple of day before the Holi created ripples in the political spectrum in Bihar which might leave its imprints on the next General and Assembly elections in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

The two sulking leaders Jitan Ram Manjhi whose party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) signed off the NDA and Ashok Kumar Chaudhary of Congress are Mahadalit leaders. While former CM Manjhi aligned with Lalu Prasad led RJD, Chaudhary, a former Minister who was removed from the president of Bihar Pradesh Congress a few months back, has joined Nitish Kumar led JD(U). Chaudhary was in Congress since his childhood as his father too was a Minister and Manjhi changed parties multiple times and had formed his own HAM when forced to resign as CM and make way for Nitish who had made him CM in 2014-2015.

What they did on Tuesday within a span of few hours with the blessings of CM Nitish Kumar on one hand and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on the other was known to everybody having little interest in politics because their sulking in their party or alliance was an open secret.

Manjhi was not happy at all with BJP realigning with  JD(U) because of his allergy to Nitish. He was also angry that his party was not given representation in the Nitish led NDA Government formed seven months back nor his favourite was accommodated in the Legislative Council. Manjhi is the only MLA of his party which has no MLC.

The former CM was aspiring to be made a Union Minister or a Governor when the last expansion of the Narendra Modi Ministry saw no more representation from Bihar other than from BJP.

He tried to bargain hard for some seats in by-election, the Council and Rajya Sabha from the NDA quota. Manjhi was critical of prohibition policy as he claimed mostly Mahadalit people have been put in jails. He is now accusing BJP of thinking to scrap reservation policy.

Chaudhary who served as PCC Chief for a long period was unceremoniously removed after Nitish broke alliance with Mahagathbandhan.

The Congress leadership thought that he was engineering split in Bihar Congress with tacit support of Nitish. Most of the State Congress leaders were in favour of his expulsion from the party. Chaudhary, an MLC, though could succeed breaking CLP, he managed to win over three other MLCs who joined JD(U) along with him. They have tacitly made this move to avoid anti defection law.

Manjhi is believed to have entered into an agreement with Lalu’s party to send him to the Rajya Sabha. His another demand was to accommodate his son and HAM Bihar president Brishen Patel in the Council for which polls would be held next fortnight. It is still not clear which demand Lalu has promised to fulfil.