In a big jolt to the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, SC and ST welfare minister and son of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Santosh Kumar Suman, tendered his resignation on Tuesday.
The move comes just 10 days before the mega opposition meet to challenge the ruling BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Suman is also the president of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), which is an ally of the Mahagathbandhan government.
HAM was founded by Jitan Ram Manjhi in 2015 and has a total of four seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, with Suman being the current MLC. It is a strong regional party, with a solid number of Backward and Extremely Backward Class supporters.
After submitting his resignation to Bihar finance minister Vijay Choudhary, Suman accused CM Nitish Kumar of pressuring his father to merge HAM with the Janata Dal United (JD-U). “I have resigned from the Cabinet. We were being forced to merge with the JD-U, but we did not accept that offer. Attempts were made to annihilate our party. I had talked to Nitish Kumar before tendering the resignation. We went out to escape from the lion in the ‘jungle’ as the lion always tries to catch the goat. We have decided to fight alone.”
Suman further said though the party is in alliance with the JD-U for now, the future course of action will be decided later. “We haven’t decided whether we will ally with the BJP. But we will sit and talk about future politics. My inning in Mahagathbandhan is over and now it depends on them to decide. Ball is in their court now. I am ready for a new inning,” Suman added.
Reacting over the resignation, former minister Shahnawaz Hussain poetically said, “Everyone will leave you one by one. Reverse counting for Mahagathbandhan has started. Lalu and Nitish will be left alone. People of Bihar have rejected this alliance. It is clear that there is a deep crack within the Mahagathbandhan. Opposition unity is just a farce.”
Former JDU hard-core and now national president of RLJD tweeted, “Sliding of one brick is enough for the dilapidated fort to collapse. This is just a trailer. See what happens next. Soon the scene of ‘The End’ will also come.”
Some JD-U ministers were not much surprised with the resignation, yet they are hopeful that Manjhi will not break the alliance. However, Minister Leshi Singh told News18, “Nitish Kumar in the past made Jitan Ram Manjhi the chief minister of Bihar and gave him his chair. Don’t know why he is not content. But there will be no effect on the Mahagathbandhan government even if he breaks the alliance. Many people come and go. It is not a bigger issue for our strong government.”
Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) MP Chirag Paswan commented that whoever has trusted and has gone back to Nitish Kumar was ditched. “This resignation speaks a lot about how Nitish Kumar disrespects those who come from backward class. On one hand, Nitish ji is trying to unite all opposition parties, and the other hand, his own base is shifting. In the coming times, more such things will occur. I don’t know how other opposition parties will trust a leader who can’t even secure his own home.”
During a meeting with Nitish Kumar on Friday, Manjhi had demanded at least five seats for his HAM in next year’s Lok Sabha polls. Suman had also said last week that the party would not agree to an offer of less than five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
Earlier this year, during his Guru Sampark Yatra, Manjhi questioned the working style of the Nitish-led government, and said, “My son is eligible to be the CM. Many people are trying to be the CM of Bihar, and my son can teach them how to read.”
Manjhi was part of the RJD-led alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which the JD-U and the BJP contested together. As a Dalit leader, he has a strong vote base in the ‘Manjhi’ community in different parts of Bihar.
However, if HAM pulls out of the coalition, it would not have a bearing on the survival of the government.
Out of 243 seats, Mahagathbandhan has 166 MLAs, including 80 from RJD, 45 from JD-U, 19 from Congress, 4 from HAM, 16 from Left parties, 1 from AIMIM and 1 Independent, while the BJP has 77 MLAs in the state assembly.
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