PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, the Dalit wild card in Bihar politics, is now choosing his own men and his own team. Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar may not have imagined in his wildest dreams that Manjhi would learn the grammar of power so quickly and apply it on him.
Manjhi has now chosen his own team of committed civil servants. The team is different from his predecessor Nitish’s who had never thought that all powerful bureaucrats who were part of his team and ruled the state for eight years would be shunted out to the least significant posts. This could be Manjhi’s key strategy to marginalise Nitish even further. Party sources say that the relation between Manjhi and his mentor Nitish Kumar reached its nadir when the CM threw away most of the officers considered part of Nitish’s team.
Political observers feel that Manjhi is moving ahead with his own Dalit agenda much similar to Mayawati’s in Uttar Pradesh. He often claims that the 22 percent Dalits of Bihar would dictate the politics and asserted that next chief minister would come from this community. Often blowing hot and cold on Nitish, Manjhi, the Dalit leader has virtually put all stalwarts of Bihar politics on the mat.
Manjhi learnt the art of governance from Kumar by heavily depending on some key officials who are deeply committed to him. The turnaround story of Bihar was largely credited to team Nitish that brought accolades from all around. Kumar’s team had some stalwarts like R K Singh, now a BJP MP from Ara, who had served as the road secretary, home commissioner and later home secretary. His successor Pratyay Amrit, a 1991 batch IAS handled road construction department and Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, a corporation responsible for building bridges.
Perhaps one of the most powerful civil servants during Kumar’s regime was his principal secretary Ram Chandra Prasad Singh (RCP Singh) an old associate from his native district belonging to the same caste. RCP Singh was working with him since 1998 as his private secretary. Later, Nitish sent him to Rajya Sabha on JD (U) ticket. Two young IAS officers Chanchal Kumar, a 1992 batch IAS and an old associate, Siddarth worked as his secretaries and were his ears and eyes monitoring different departments.
Nitish had built a team of highly committed officers including some officers brought on deputation to Bihar. They were given key assignments whereas many senior officers like Manoj Srivastava, Amita Paul were permanently shunted out to insignificant departments. Most of the blue-eyed officers were kept on the same post for quite a long period like Afzal Amanullah, husband of former JDU minister and now AAP leader, Parveen Amanullah. Afzal served as Home secretary for three years and his successor Amir Subhani considered very close to Kumar served there for six years till Manjhi transferred him recently.
Former IPS officer Amrik Singh Nimbran, a Dalit, is considered a key aide to Manjhi. He was appointed recently as security advisor to CM. Another Dalit officer, Amrit Lal Meena is from Rajasthan. He has been made Principal Secretary to Chief Minister. Considered one of the most powerful bureaucrats in the Manjhi team, he assists the CM in monitoring different departments of the government. The new Inspector General of Patna A K Ambedkar who replaced Kundan Krishnan, considered very close to Nitish Kumar, is one of the key persons in police department.
Perhaps, the only exception is Atish Chandra, a 1994 batch IAS. He continued on his post as secretary to CM along with additional charge of Information and Public Relation Department (I & PRD). The crucial department that takes care of media and publicity was earlier held by Pratyay Amrit. He was the first key officer whom Manjhi transferred after returning from his UK visit.
Another IAS officer from his home district Gaya, Narmadeshwar Lal is holding the dual charge of Patna Commissioner and Principal Secretary building. Earlier, this key department taking care of some key building projects worth thousands of crores was headed by Chanchal Kumar. Lal was instrumental in organsing a meeting of controversial Dalit officers with the CM for the first time as the president of SC/ST Employees’ Association. Another Dalit officer shifted to key position is Sudhir Kumar. He has replaced Amir Subhani, his predecessor who continued for six long years.
Two senior cabinet ministers of the Manjhi government, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh and P K Shahi considered close to former chief minister Nitish had written a letter to chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh questioning whether the state government had followed guidelines set by the Centre on the directive of the Supreme Court with regard to the transfer of the officials belonging to the all-India services. “It’s ridiculous that ministers are questioning the wisdom of their own chief minister. By now the chief minister should have sacked them,” commented senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.