Nitish Kumar attends Jitan Ram Manjhi’s iftar party

PATNA: The growing bonhomie between CM Nitish Kumar and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi over iftar has set tongues wagging in the political circles, especially after JD(U) refused to join the Narendra Modi government at the Centre on May 30 while rejecting the BJP offer for one cabinet berth as “symbolic representation”.
Nitish not only attended the iftar hosted by Manjhi on Monday but the two leaders also hugged each other much to the delight of JD(U) functionaries and to the chagrin of RJD, the Grand Alliance partner of HAM(S) in state. Significantly, Manjhi had skipped the RJD’s iftar hosted by former CM Rabri Devi on Sunday but attended the one by JD(U) the same evening. However, Rabri and her son Tej Pratap Yadav attended Manjhi’s iftar but left the venue before Nitish reached there.
Earlier in the day, RJD vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said Nitish may switch sides any time.
Speaking to media after iftar, Manjhi also said, “Anything can happen in politics. We (JD-U and HAM-S) have common stand on Article 370, uniform civil code and special status to Bihar.” He asked Nitish to join them and help in ousting BJP.
Manjhi, who was made Bihar CM by Nitish after the crushing defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, had later turned a bitter critic of CM Nitish before joining the BJP-led NDA. Later, Manjhi joined the RJD-led Grand Alliance, which suffered drubbings in the recent Lok Sabha elections.