Was snooping on allies, says Nitish amid speculations of Jitan Ram Manjhi's party exiting Bihar alliance
PATNA: Breaking his silence on Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) patron Jitan Ram Manjhi’s decision to quit the Grand Alliance (GA), Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Friday alleged that Manjhi was snooping on GA’s allies adding that he had given him the option of merging his party with his JD(U).
Talking to the media on the sidelines of the swearing-in of JD(U) MLA Ratneshwar Sada as a minister, Nitish said Manjhi kept on meeting BJP leaders when he was in GA. He said he had asked Manjhi to merge his party or quit the GA.
However, Manjhi decided to distance himself from the GA as his son resigned from the cabinet. “I was already convinced that Manjhi would quit the GA but he always claimed before me that he would not go anywhere,” the CM said.
Nitish said that Opposition leaders would hold a meeting in the state capital on June 23 and Manhji would have told all details of deliberations held in the meeting to the BJP leaders, had he been with the GA. “This is why I had told him clearly to either merge your party with JD(U) or leave the grand alliance,” he added.
Without taking the name of LJP (Ram Vilas) chief and MP Chirag Paswan, Nitish said a conspiracy was hatched to ensure the defeat of JD(U) candidates in the last state assembly election. He said that all party candidates either those who won the election or lost the polls, told him later that BJP did not support them in the polls.
“Still I continued my relationship with BJP but later left NDA,” he remarked. It is alleged that Chirage on persuasion of BJP had fielded his party candidates against JD(U) nominees in the election to cut into the latter’s votes and ensure their defeat in 2020.
The rumours of a rift between the two politicians started surfacing when Jitan Ram Manjhi met Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on April 14. At the same time, Nitish Kumar was also in Delhi, meeting top opposition leaders as part of their efforts to create a united front against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.