Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi was “spying.
On Mahagathbandhan allies” for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, and his party is no longer a part of the ruling alliance since it is not ready to merge with the Janata Dal (United), chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Friday.
Kumar also said that Manjhi, a former chief minister, wanted to be a part of the June 23 meeting of Opposition parties in Patna but was not invited amid apprehensions that he may leak details of the event to the BJP.
Manjhi, however, said he felt “liberated” by exiting the alliance and his party will soon decide on the next course of action.
The Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance has 164 MLAs in the 243-seat Bihar assembly. HAM-S has a total of four MLAs in the House. Besides HAM-S and the JD(U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Left are among parties which are part of the alliance.
Kumar’s remarks came two days after Manjhi’s son, Santosh Suman, quit the state cabinet amid a proposal to merge HAM-S with the JD(U). Suman, who held the SC and ST welfare portfolio, and is national president of HAM-S and member of the legislative council, said he tendered his resignation as he had no option and “could not sacrifice his party”.
The chief minister was speaking to reporters after the swearing-in of JD(U) MLA from Sonbarsa assembly seat, Ratnesh Sada, who took over the vacant portfolio.
“He (Manjhi was spying on the Mahagathbandhan allies and was in constant touch with BJP leaders. He recently met several BJP leaders. It is an open secret. He was keen to attend the Opposition meeting but we knew what he was up to. Had he stayed with us and attended the meeting, he would have passed on all information to the BJP,” Kumar, who is trying to bring Opposition leaders together on a common platform ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year, said.
“I asked Manjhi to merge HAM-S with JD(U). He said he could not do so. I asked him to leave the alliance… it is good that he left,” he added.
Manjhi, however, said he felt “liberated” by exiting the alliance. “I had vowed to always remain with Kumar. Now that he, himself, has pressed the exit button for me from the alliance, I feel liberated. When Kumar was with the BJP-led NDA, everything was alright. Now, suddenly he has developed an allergy for the BJP,” he told HT over phone from Gaya.
The HAM-S leader also said that the party will decide on the next course of action during a national working committee meeting in Patna on June 19.
Suman dismissed allegations that HAM-S was hobnobbing with the BJP. He also said that his party could “never compromise with its identity by merging with the JD(U)”. “The JD(U) and other constituents of the alliance do not want smaller parties to grow as they fear their own existence may be at stake,” he said.
BJP state spokesperson Arvind Singh said the accusations level against Manjhi “was unbecoming of a leader of a chief minister’s stature”.