UP election: BJP may take help of Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party to woo Dalits

PATNA: The BJP national brass has decided to rope in Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led by former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi into its fold to catch the imagination of Dalits during the assembly elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh early next year, sources said.
Since Jitan Ram Manjhi and his son Santosh Manjhi, who is minister in the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar, were in Delhi on Tuesday night, it set the ball rolling in this regard.
The senior and junior Manjhis were expected to hold discussions with Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda and its general secretary incharge of Bihar affairs Bhupendra Yadav on Tuesday. However, party sources said the meeting would now be held on Wednesday.
It is learned that a couple of days ago, the Manjhi senior had telephonic conversations with PM Narendra Modi, who, in turn, asked him to get in touch with the BJP’s top brass – Shah and Nadda – and also Yadav. “The PM will get into the picture after that,” a source said.
From the point of view of the BJP, it has taken to rope in the HAM(S) with an eye on the assembly elections in UP, because the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which, earlier, was in the NDA, is split and also in complete disarray, while another major NDA partner in Bihar, the JD(U), has announced to contest 200 assembly seats on its own in the neighbouring state.
As to the existing Dalit political outfits in UP, the BJP thinks that the Bahujan Samaj Party led by former CM Mayawati has lost its force and sting, as the Bhim Army, whose members call themselves “Ambedkarites and real followers of B R Ambedkar,” has been trying to spread its wings across the state.
The questions as to how many seats the HAM(S) will contest in UP and in which parts of the state will be resolved in the process of future talks.
HAM(S) spokesman Danish Rizwan said, “The agenda for the discussion of the two Manjhis from Bihar with the BJP top brass had been decided in advance. It is two-fold. It concerned the demand of our party for the reservation of Dalit sections in the judiciary and also in the private sector. The matters regarding the development in Bihar would also be on agenda.”
In Bihar, the HAM(S) has been a part of the NDA as a “partner” of Nitish, but the LJP faction led by the Hajipur MP Pashupati Kumar Paras has been seemingly inching closer to Nitish.