Jiten Ram Manjhi, a man for all alliances
Manjhi spoke out against his son getting charge of the SC/ST welfare department. Are we not capable of looking after other departments, he asked
Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has been predicting the return of Nitish Kumar to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold once again for the past six months, are giving sleepless nights to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) leaders ahead of floor test on February 12.
After demanding an additional berth for his party in Bihar’s new NDA cabinet led by Nitish, HAM(S) leader Manjhi expressed displeasure over the portfolio allocated to his party’s only minister, causing some discomfort in the state's ruling NDA.
Manjhi’s son and HAM(S) legislator Santosh Kumar Suman — who was among the nine ministers, including the chief minister, to be sworn in on January 28 — was allocated SC, ST welfare as well as Information Technology departments on Sunday.
“From 1984 to 2013, whenever I became a minister, I was only allocated the SC/ST welfare portfolio. When Nitish Kumar made me the CM (from May 2014 to February 2015), he must have felt that I, being an SC, would do whatever he says… Now my son Santosh Kumar Suman has also given the same ministry... Is there only the SC/ST welfare department for us?” Manjhi, who belongs to a scheduled caste community, said.
Political survival and caste-consciousness
At 79, the veteran has over four decades in politics, Manjhi’s party, HAM-S, with four MLAs in a house of 243 and an MLC, has suddenly become the party in demand in Bihar’s politics. The NDA block wants to ensure that he doesn’t ditch them and the Grand Alliance is keen to lure him to their side.
“Bihar has many political weather experts and he is one of them. Though having fewer numbers, he gives all alliances the extra benefit in case of tight situations,” said Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of sociology, the College of Commerce.
Manjhi, who began his political journey in 1980 as a Congress MLA, first became a state minister in 1983 in Chandrashekhar Singh-led government in Bihar. Since then he has been a minister in various governments and apart from working in the cabinet of Nitish Kumar, he has worked with several other CMs, including Bindeshwari Dubey, Chandrashekhar Singh, Jagannath Mishra, Satyendra Narayan Singh, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.
He was affiliated with several political parties, the Congress (1980-1990), Janata Dal (1990-1996), Rashtriya Janata Dal (1996-2005) and JD (U) (2005-2015). He was expelled from JD(U) following the February 2015 political crisis and subsequently, Manjhi emerged as a major Dalit face in Bihar. In May of that year, he floated a new political party, adding Secular to its name a month later.
An astute judge of the political scenario, he joined JD (U) when the NDA formed the government and won the election from Barachatti. He was made a minister and asked to resign soon when his involvement in a corruption scam surfaced. Manjhi was involved in a fake B.Ed. degree racket in Bihar as the state education minister in the RJD government during the 1990s.
In 2008 he was re-inducted in Nitish’s cabinet after he was absolved, and was made the SC/ ST welfare minister. In the 2010 Bihar elections, he was elected to the state legislative assembly from Makhdumpur in Jehanabad district.
Once considered a confidante of Nitish, he was made the 23rd CM of Bihar in May 2014 after Nitish resigned on account of the party’s poor performance in the LS polls.
Aspiration and standing ground
Manjhi refused to resign after 10 months — as no doubt, he was expected to do. As a result, he was expelled from the party. Nitish later alleged that Manjhi, instead of carrying the roadmap, started acting like an alternative government which blew the very concept of 'sushashan' (good governance).
However, in his brief 10-month tenure, the Manjhi cabinet included Paswans in the Mahadalit category and implemented Maha Dalit commission recommendations for the uplift of the most marginalised sections of society.
Manjhi embarrassed the party when, as CM, he spoke of Nitish’s failure to rein in corruption despite an enviable track record on the development front. He also had no qualms in launching a slew of welfare schemes for Gaya, his home district, on the pretext that Nitish had similarly transformed his native Nalanda district.
Manjhi often made controversial remarks — in 2008, he advocated eating rats, saying that rats cause damage to food grains and that rats and chickens have equal nutritional value. Once, while speaking to people in the Bettiah district he said, “Upper caste people are foreigners and only tribals and Dalits are indigenous people.” This statement came under fire from his party men too.