On June 19, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), withdrew its support to Bihar’s ruling party Janata Dal (United), giving a huge setback to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The former Bihar chief minister had formally cut ties with JDU by submitting a letter on withdrawal of support to Governor Rajendra Arlekar in Patna, Bihar. There is a possibility that HAM may join BJP led alliance ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Recently on June 13, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s son Santosh Suman tendered his resignation from the post of Minister in the Bihar Government. Suman was in the cabinet of the Nitish Kumar-led Government and was the Minister of SC, ST welfare.
Santosh Suman met with the senior leader of Janata Dal (United), Vijay Chaudhary and submitted his resignation from the cabinet. It’s been learnt that Suman was accompanied by his father during the meeting.
It has been reported that Jitan 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.
Reacting to Suman’s resignation Janata Dal (United) national president Lalan Singh said that “Small shops are not viable in the current political situation”. He added, “His resignation will have no impact on our grand alliance. As many as 27 Opposition parties are coming together”.
Earlier on June 9, the former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had also demanded that his party should be given its due share in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Jitan Ram Manjhi’s son and the National President of HAM, Santosh Suman, had also asserted that the party would 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 and the withdrawal of support by Jitan Ram Manjhi 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.
Apart from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and DMK supremo MK Stalin, other prominent Opposition figures who would be present at the meeting include Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
