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Journalism of Courage
When the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder and former Bihar chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital on April 14, Bihar CM and Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar was also in Delhi, meeting top Opposition leaders as part of their efforts to create a united front against the ruling Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Manjhi later said he met Shah to demand Bharat Ratna for Bihar’s “mountain man” Dasrath Manjhi and the state’s former CMs, Srikrishna Singh and Karpoori Thakur.
Observers could then sense that Manjhi had started to distance himself from the Nitish-led Mahagathbandhan – the grand alliance of seven parties, including the RJD and Congress, which has been at the helm in Bihar since August last year.
With its four MLAs the HAM(S) has been a minor player in the grand alliance, which accounts for 164 of the Assembly’s total 243 members, with Manjhi thus not having much bargaining power vis-a-vis Nitish.
After his meeting with Shah, Manjhi issued a string of statements over the last two months that betrayed his growing unease with the Mahagathbandhan. First, he said his son, Santosh Kumar Suman, the then SC/ST welfare minister in the Nitish Cabinet, who has postgraduate and doctorate degrees, was “more qualified” and even “more deserving CM candidate” than RJD leader and Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
When his statements did not cut much ice with the grand alliance, Manjhi sought five Lok Sabha seats (of the state’s total 40) for his party in the 2024 polls.
His son Suman upped the ante on Tuesday by resigning as the minister – 10 days before the first joint Opposition parties’ Patna meeting – and alleging that they had been under pressure to merge the HAM(S) with the JD (U). “How can we allow anyone to subsume our identity? HAM (S) will continue to remain a political force and work for Dalits”, said Suman, hinting at their growing proximity to the BJP.
The JD(U) and the RJD lost no time in declaring that the HAM (S) was no longer part of the Mahagathbandhan.
In May 2014, Manjhi became the first person from the Scheduled Caste Mushahar community to become the Bihar CM. Though the state earlier had the Dalit CMs such as Bhola Paswan Shahstri and Ramsunder Das, Manjhi’s elevation to the CM’s post was construed as a move meant to give representation to the most backward among Dalits in the state.
Observers say that Manjhi, who used to keep a very low profile, also fully realised the “power of his surname” when he was catapulted to the CM’s post. He first became the MLA on the Congress’s ticket in 1980 and became the deputy minister in the then Chandrashekhar Singh-led government.
Manjhi, who hails from Mahkar in Jehanabad, switched to the Janata Dal before the 1990 Assembly polls and became the minister of state after Lalu Prasad became the CM in 1990. His political fortune was revived during Nitish’s second stint as the CM (2005-10) when he was appointed as the SC/ST welfare minister. But he had to soon resign following a pending education “scam” case.
Manjhi returned as a minister after a few years in the same department after his name was cleared in the case, and he continued to remain a Nitish loyalist.
On the day Nitish decided to make him his successor as the CM in May 2014, Manjhi was packing his suitcase to go to his village for some work. The Dalit leader was said to have been taken aback when Nitish called him to the CM House and rose from his chair saying “Ye kursi ab aapki hai (this chair is yours now).”
Nitish, who has taken several measures to reach out to the most backward Dalit communities under the rubric of “Mahadalit”, took Manjhi’s elevation as his “masterstroke”.
Manjhi served as the CM from May 2014 to February 2015, during which he emerged as a leader in his own right. He defied and challenged Nitish and was then ousted from the CM’s post and the JD (U). Subsequently, he formed his own party, HAM(S), with some JD(U) rebels, and aligned with the BJP in the October-November 2015 Assembly polls. His party could win just two seats.
After the polls, the HAM(S) crossed over to the Mahagathbandhan. Suman, who taught at a private college at Wazirganj in Gaya, was made an MLC with the RJD’s support. Manjhi, however, again returned to the NDA with Nitish in 2017.
The HAM (S) won four seats in the 2020 Assembly polls as a JD(U)/NDA ally. He switched back to the Mahagathbandhan along with Nitish in August last year, although he ran into a cul-de-sac there given his party’s low tally.
Manjhi is now looking to get elected as the Lok Sabha MP as he gears up to join hands with the BJP again. Once he rejoins the NDA, he might get a chance to contest from the Gaya parliamentary seat in the 2024 polls. “Even if he does not succeed in getting a parliamentary seat to contest from, he can fancy his chances of becoming a Governor. Manjhi sees his future with us,” said a BJP leader.
