Amid claims of Opposition unity, the grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) in Bihar faced a major jolt when Santosh Suman, Cabinet Minister and son of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) founder Jeetan Ram Manjhi tendered his resignation on June 13.
As per the reports, the former Cabinet Minister of SC, ST welfare in the Nitish Kumar-led Government today met with the senior Janata Dal-United (JDU) Vijay Chaudhary and submitted his resignation from the cabinet. It’s been learnt that Santosh Suman was accompanied by his father during the meeting.
It’s been reported that Jeetan Ram Manjhi was unhappy with the seat-sharing dynamics for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, scheduled to be held in the summer of next year, demanding at least five seats for his party HAM in the general elections.
Speaking with the media after his resignation, Santosh Suman said “that there is huge pressure on us to merge our party in JDU, an offer was given to us that if you want to continue with us, then you have to merge your party to the JDU to which we politely refused as it was not only an award proposal but also intolerable. We will go in the masses and carry forward our struggle.”
“We had demanded five lok sabha seats for the party; however that was very much negotiable, but the merger of the party is certainly out of the equation; thus I opted for the resignation as our party’s existence was under threat.” quoted further the former Minister of the Nitish led Government.
“The decision has been made in accordance with the party’s MLAs, and we will soon hold a meeting with all the party functionaries to decide the further course of action”, concluded Santosh Suman.
Meanwhile, throwing the bowl in the JDU court, Jeetan Ram Manjhi, who reportedly enjoys a good rapport among the Dalit community after meeting Vijay Chaudhary, only quoted ” That if Nitish Kumar agrees to his demands, he will continue to be a part of the grand alliance.”
Earlier on June 9, the former Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi had also demanded that his party should be given its due share in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Jeetan Ram Manjhi’s son and the National President of HAM, Santosh Suman, had also asserted that the party will not agree to an offer of less than five of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
It is to be noted that the resignation of Santosh Suman has come at a time when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is meeting several leaders of the Opposition to forge a grand alliance against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A grand meet-up between several Opposition leaders, including the Indian National Congress (INC), is also scheduled to be held in Patna on June 23.
Let us tell you that the former JDU leader Jeetan Ram Manjhi had set the political circle abuzz in April, after he met with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. It is to be noted that Jeetan Ram Manjhi’s HAM party, which was founded in 2015, has a total of 4 seats in Bihar’s State legislative assembly.
