In a major blow to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, former Chief Minister Jitin Ram Manjhi’s party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) withdrew its support from the Mahagathbandhan government in the state today.

There are high chances of Manjhi shaking hands with BJP and be a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Both Manjhi and his son and HAM national chief Santosh Suman are likely to fly to Delhi later today.

Suman while speaking to the media announced the decision and said he has sought the time from Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar to personally hand him over the letter of withdrawal of support from Nitish Kumar’s government.

During a press conference Suman said, he will fly to Delhi to look out the future options and also indicating on an alliance with the NDA said he is willing to consider an invitation if sent by the BJP headed coalition at the Centre.

Suman said the party is also looking out options for setting up a third front.

The decision comes just days after Suman’s resignation from the Bihar government. Suman on June 13 had resigned from Nitish Kumar’s cabinet, where he served as a Minister for Minor Irrigation and SC/ST, the lone minister from HAM in Kumar’s government.

Suman had then alleged pressure from Kumar’s Janata Dal(United) to merge his party.  

Reports said, the HAM leaders are also likely to hold meetings with BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The HAM, which was founded years ago by Manjhi has four MLAs and had joined the Mahagathbandhan last year, days after Nitish Kumar(then NDA ally) dumped the BJP and tied hands with Lalu Yada’s RJD and Congress forming a new government in Bihar under his leadership.

In the 243 Bihar assembly, Kumar’s ruling coalition has around 160 MLAs which comprises JD(U), RJD and Congress besides three left parties’ outside support.

The Congress has named former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar as a candidate in the upcoming Karnataka legislative council bypolls. Jagadish Shettar recently lost the Assembly election. 

Beside Jagadish Shettar, the Congress has also named Tippannappa Kamaknoor and NS Boseraju as the candidates for the MLC bypolls. The MLC bypolls is scheduled to be held on June 30, 2023. Issuing a press release, the Congress declared the names of the candidates. 

The press release stated that the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the proposal for the candidature of Jagadish Shettar, Tippannappa Kamaknoor and N.S. Boseraju as Congress candidate to contest the bye-elections to the Legislative Council of Karnataka. 

Reports claim that the bypolls were necessitated after the three BJP leaders namely Laxman Savadi, Baburao Chianchansur, and R Shankar resigned from their post after the party refused to give them party tickets to contest the assembly polls.

This is to be noted that Jagadish Shetter, who is a Lingayat leader, resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined the Congress for the same aforementioned reason. Jagadish Shetter contested the polls from Hubballi Dharwad Central seat on a Congress ticket. However, he was defeated in the polls. The six-time MLA only managed to get the seat share of 36.31 per cent and lost to BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai. The Congress party reportedly offered him a key position. 

According to reports, since Jagadish Shettar’s election loss, the Congress party has been mulling over how to accommodate the Lingayat leader ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In the Karnataka assembly election, the Congress acquired 135 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party won 66 seats among 224 constituencies. The Janata Dal (Secular) obtained only 19 seats. 

Earlier, senior BJP leader and former chief minister of Karnataka Jagadish Shettar joined the Congress ahead of the May 10 Assembly elections in the southern state.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishanker was on a podcast, The Ranveer Show. During the show, he spoke on various issues related to Indian foreign policies and challenges. He talked about his visit to London when he saw a man climbing up the Indian High Commission building in London and was trying to pull the Indian flag. He expressed that this incident made him very angry.

Earlier, S Jaishanker had said that India would not consider low standards of security to the Indian diplomats. He said the required levels of security were expected from a country where a consulate or a high commission is located. He further added it was the obligation of the receiving country to provide the required levels of security to the diplomat to do their work.

Avtar Singh, the main accused of the Indian High Commission violence and the chief of the terror organisation Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) Khanda died in Sandwell hospital in Birmingham on June 15. Sikh federation UK which is one of the largest Sikh organisations in the UK said Avtar Singh was ill and was suffering from blood cancer. He had been on a life support system for the last few days.

Avtar Singh was involved in the terrorist activities in the UK by joining the KLF active in Britain and other countries. He was also wanted in a conspiracy to kill Sukhbir Singh Badal (president of Shiromani Akali Dal), former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and senior advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains. Avtar Singh went to UK in 2007 on study visa. He later took asylum in 2012 and did not return to India since then.

He was linked to anti India activities like the attack on the tricolor at the high Commision in London. His family still resides in Purana, Moga district, Punjab.