Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) will join the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on September 3 in Patna.
The HAM(S) will be the fourth alliance partner of the NDA in the State.
“Yes, we’ll be joining NDA tomorrow (Thursday) in Patna and our party president Jitan Ram Manjhi ji would announce it formally,” HAM(S) leader and party spokesperson Danish Rizwan told The Hindu over phone, while adding, “our agenda for joining the NDA is development of the State and nothing else”.
Last month Mr. Manjhi announced that his party had severed ties with the Opposition RJD-led ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) as his consistent demand for the formation of a coordination committee in the alliance ahead of coming Assembly poll was not met.
On August 27, he met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and since then the talk of his joining the ruling NDA was 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 BJP-led NDA, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from the post and made Mr. Manjhi the Chief Minister.
However, later both parted ways and Mr. Kumar became Chief Minister again and Mr. Manjhi joined the ‘mahagathbandhan’.
Party sources told The Hindu that the HAM(S) may get seven to nine Assembly seats from the JD(U) quota in the NDA alliance for the coming poll that is due in October-November this year.
The seats the party is likely to get are Barachatti, Imamganj, Kutumba, Makhdumpur, Rajauli, Atari, Tekari, Sursand and Purnea.
Ahead of the poll, as many as seven RJD MLAs have so far joined the JD(U) and some leaders from other parties too have switched over to the RJD.
“There is nothing surprising that Manjhi ji would be joining the NDA tomorrow as everyone knows in Bihar that he wanted to have a deal of seats with us for the Assembly poll which he finally managed with Nitish Kumar,” a senior State RJD leader said.