India News | CAL14 BH-MANJHI Jitan Manjhi Thanks PM Modi for Coming out in His Support

Patna, Nov 13 (PTI) Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting him in the wake of his humiliation by incumbent CM Nitish Kumar.

Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), also announced that he will stage a demonstration here on Tuesday in protest against the "insult".

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"I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of ill-treatment meted out to me in his speeches," said Manjhi, who was given a dressing down by Kumar inside the Bihar assembly last week.

Manjhi added, "the PM has always been sensitive towards Nitish Kumar's brusqueness towards Dalit leaders like late Ram Vilas Paswan or myself".

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Manjhi was reminded by Kumar, during a discussion on the Bill providing for hiked reservations, that the HAM chief owed his brief stint as the chief minister to the JD(U) supreme leader.

Manjhi said, "A silent demonstration (maun pradarshan) will be staged tomorrow in front of Baba Saheb Ambedkar's statue close to Patna High Court. It is being taken out by various Dalit organisations which share my hurt. I will also be present at the demonstration".

Manjhi, who was then in JD(U), became the chief minister in May 2014, when Kumar had stepped down taking moral responsibility for the party's drubbing in Lok Sabha polls.

However, Manjhi's nine-month rule was marred by several controversies which ultimately led to his expulsion from the party and he resigned, causing Kumar to return as CM, after his proposal to dissolve the assembly was opposed by most of the ministers in his cabinet.

He thereafter floated HAM and started off as an NDA ally but joined Mahagathbandhan in 2018 when the RJD helped his son Santosh Suman get a berth in legislative council.

Ahead of 2020 assembly polls, he returned to NDA and his party was given seats to contest from JD(U)'s quota.

Nitish Kumar rewarded Suman with a cabinet berth after a new government was formed.

Last year, when Kumar quit the NDA, Manjhi and his party followed suit, a move that helped Suman retain his ministerial berth.

However, the HAM chief decided to part ways after Kumar asked him to merge the party with JD(U).

Kumar has also accused Manjhi of hobnobbing with the BJP, which rules the Centre, with an eye on a gubernatorial assignment, a charge denied by the HAM chief.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)