In a sudden move, former Bihar Chief Minister and president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAM-S) Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday announced that his party has become a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Mr. Manjhi was to announce the same on Thursday.
“From today, my party has become a part of the NDA in Bihar…earlier, I was to announce it on Thursday but I thought there should not be any delay in good work”, he said in a hurriedly called press conference.
Mr. Manjhi made it clear that his party would not “merge” with the JD(U) as speculated but would be a part of the NDA. He said, “I’ve also not demanded any number of seats for the forthcoming assembly elections in the State… when a mutual understanding between us has reached then, I think, there should not be any talk of any demand”.
Mr. Manjhi slammed the ‘mahagathbandhan’ constituents, the RJD and Congress, for not meeting his demand of forming a coordination committee for a long time.
“They kept dilly-dallying on my demand and then we decided to severe our ties with ‘mahagathbandhan’,” he said.
‘Message from CM’s house’
Meanwhile, sources in the party told The Hindu that Mr. Manjhi had to rush to Patna on Wednesday from his native place Mahakar in Gaya district on some “express massage” from the Chief Minister’s house. “The message from CM’s house preponed the plan”, the sources said.
HAM(S) leader and spokesperson Danish Rizwan had told The Hindu over phone, “Yes, we’ll be joining NDA tomorrow [Thursday] in Patna and our party president Jitan Ram Manjhi ji would announce it formally. Our agenda for joining the NDA is not number of seats to contest but development initiatives taken by the governments at Centre and the state”. ”.
On August 27, Mr. Manjhi met Mr. Kumar and since then the talk of his joining the ruling NDA has been doing the rounds in the State’s political corridor.
Mr. Manjhi was earlier in the JD(U) and after its crushing defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election by the NDA, Mr. Kumar resigned from the post and made Mr. Manjhi the Chief Minister. However, later both parted ways and Mr. Kumar became the Chief Minister again and Mr. Manjhi joined the ‘mahagathbandhan’.
May get 7 to 9 seats from JD(U)
Party sources told The Hindu that the HAM(S) may get seven to nine seats from the JD(U) quota in the coming polls that is due in October-November.
The seats the party is likely to get are Barachatti, Imamganj, Kutumba, Makhdumpur, Rajauli, Atari, Tekari, Sursand and Purnea.
RJD leader and party spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said, “Manjhi ji ko NDA mein jaana tha, coordination committee to ek bahana tha [Manjhi ji had to go to NDA and he was taking excuse over formation of a coordination committee]”.
Ahead of the polls, as many as seven RJD MLAs have so far joined JD(U) and some other party leaders too have switched over to the RJD.
HAM(S) will now be the fourth constituent of the NDA in the State.