Tag: Jitan Ram Manjhi

Grand Alliance Holds Protest March In Patna, Tejashwi Yadav Absent.

Source – ndtv.com

PATNA: The five-member Grand Alliance along with the Left parties on Wednesday took out protest march in Patna against “anti-people” policies of both Central and the state governments, though RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav gave the stir a miss.

RJD, the major constituent of the opposition grouping in Bihar, however, said Mr Yadav could not participate in the “Aakrosh march” because of his engagements in the ensuing Jharkhand polls and also legal matters.

RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, who played a pivotal role in organising the march on behalf of alliance, had on Tuesday claimed that all the prominent leaders of the grouping will take part in the march.

Apart from Mr Kushwaha,former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) president Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar Congress president Madan Mohan Jha and Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni attended the march in Patna which ended at Collectorate after starting from Gandhi Maidan.

CPI state secretary Satya Narayan Singh and CPI(M) leader Arun Mishra took part in the agitation along with their partymen.

The alliance leaders, however, could not give their memorandum to District Magistrate Kumar Ravi as he was not present in the office and a junior officer was sent to receive it.

The leaders decided not to give memorandum to any other officer than the DM as it was an “insult” to them. 

The five-parties alliance- comprising RJD, Congress, RLSP, HAM(S) and VIP- held peaceful protest march at all the district headquarters town of the state during the day. 

Asked if he was leading the march, Mr Kushwaha, who is a former union minister of state, said “its not like that. This is neither Mr Kushwaha’s programme nor that of my party. It is an agitation programme of all the Grand Alliance partners and left parties…There is no question of any particular individual leading the march.”

Manjhi, whose party had earlier said that it would not join the march, attended it.

The HAM chief said that he had said that he would not be part of the march because of some confusion. 

Manjhi, however, reiterated his demand for forming coordination committee for taking decisions and better functioning of the grand alliance.

“Our demand for coordination committee is absolutely legitimate. I have given a December target (deadline) for the formation of the committee,” Manjhi said.

The HAM president, however, refused to comment on Tejashwi Yadav’s absence from the march, saying that “I have nothing to say on it. Tejashwi may not have come because of his own reasons.”

RJD resorted to tokenism by sending its spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwary to the agitation in the state capital. 

Asked why is Tejashwi Yadav not present in the march, Tiwary said he could not participate in the stir as he was engaged with his legal battles and ensuing assembly polls in Jharkhand.

He further said RJD’s state unit chief Ram Chandra Purvey was busy in a party’s crucial meeting with regard to its organisational polls. 

Manjhi’s HAM breaks alliance, to go solo in Bihar, Jharkhand state polls.

Source – business-standard.com

Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) president Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday announced that his party will be contesting on its own in 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections.

Manjhi, who had served as Bihar chief minister from May 2014 to February 2015, announced to fight alone citing that its ally Congress and the RJD are not taking him into confidence while making any decisions.

“Congress and the RJD are not hearing our demands. We have told them to make the coordination committee during the Lok Sabha election so that decisions can be taken with the consent of all the parties. But both RJD and NCP are taking decisions independently and are imposing on us, which is why we thought it is better to leave the alliance,” he said while speaking to media in Patna.

Taking about the future coarse of action, Manjhi also informed that his party will fight Jharkhand polls independently.

Earlier, Manjhi had also rejected the possibility of joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), alleging that the BJP was involved in communal politics.

NCP and HAM contested the Lok Sabha elections in coalition with RJD, Congress and some other parties but could not win even a single seat in Bihar.

Jitan Ram Manjhi Threatens To Pull Out Of Opposition Alliance In Bihar.

Source – ndtv.com

PATNA: Disarray in the opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar again emerged on Friday when former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s fresh threat of pulling out of the five-party formation was rubbished by other coalition partners as his pressure tactics.

They expressed the view that the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief was merely trying to play hardball and would ultimately fall in line.

Mr Manjhi had announced at the meeting of his party’s national executive meeting in Bihar capital Patna Thursday night it will go it alone in Jharkhand where it has never contested an election so far and field its candidates in all the 243 assembly segments in Bihar when Vidhan Sabha polls were held next year.

The mercurial leader, however, was yet to make up his mind as to which seats to contest in Jharkhand where elections have been announced and polling would commence by the end of this month.

His announcement of fighting all the Bihar seats was in line with his repeated threats issued in the aftermath of the drubbing received by the grand alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.

HAM had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats it had contested, including Gaya which Mr Manjhi himself lost to a relative newcomer Vijay Manjhi of the JD(U).

Speculation is rife that after having gravitated to the grand alliance last year, when he quit the NDA and ended up clinching a legislative council berth for his son from the quota of the RJD the wily leader may be eyeing a return to the formation headed by the BJP which seems on the upswing in the state as well as the country.

However, Mr Manjhi firmly denied any plans to return to the NDA when asked by reporters on Friday.

NDA sources say that Mr Manjhi’s entry is likely to meet with stiff opposition from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U) and against whom the HAM president had revolted before floating his own outfit.

Besides, the LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan would also not like to share his political space with another Dalit leader.

Meanwhile, RJD national vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh dismissed Mr Manjhi’s latest outburst, saying “he is simply engaging in a bit of shadow boxing to enthuse his party’s rank and file.”

“He may be having some demands which are not being met. But that happens to all parties in a coalition. Once the process of campaign for Bihar assembly elections picks up, he is going to find no other abode except the grand alliance”.

The views were echoed by Congress Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who hoped that his current foul mood notwithstanding, Mr Manjhi will be firmly with the grand alliance when the poll bugle is sounded in Bihar.

Interestingly, former Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni whose support Mr Manjhi has been counting on since the recent by-polls, ended up at a press conference addressed jointly by leaders of the grand alliance and Left parties as a show of solidarity among forces opposed to the BJP-led coalition, which rules the Centre as well as the state.

The press conference was organized by RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha on Friday and Mr Manjhi took care to ensure no leader of his party attended the same.

However, RLSP national secretary general Madhaw Anand told PTI “we are not able to understand the grouse of Manjhi, who is a senior and respected leader. He seems to be impatient about things like the grand alliance chief ministerial candidate and the respective share of seats for each constituent. We can only urge him not to cause more damage to the Mahagathbandhan by haste,” Mr Anand said.

Mr Anand was hinting at Mr Manjhi having fielded his candidate from Nathnagar assembly segment where by-polls were held last month and which the RJD lost by a margin less than the number of votes secured by the HAM candidate.

Taking a cue from Mr Manjhi, Mr Sahni had also fielded his party’s candidate from Simri Bakhtiyarpur though it did not come in the way of the RJD wresting the seat from JD(U) by a comfortable margin.

Mr Manjhi’s defiant stance during elections had followed repeated attacks on RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on whose inexperience he blamed the Lok Sabha debacle of grand alliance and threw his hat in the ring for being projected as the opposition coalitions cm candidate, much to the annoyance of Lalu Yadav’s party.

AIMIM Victory in Bihar Will Pave Way for Dalit-Muslim Unity, Says Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Source – news18.com

Patna: HAM president Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday hailed the victory of Asaduddin Owaisis AIMIM in Kishanganj assembly by-poll saying the maiden success of the Hyderabad MPs party in Bihar will pave the way for “dalit-muslim unity” across the country.

Manjhi, who is also a former chief minister, condemned the adverse remarks against Owaisi by some people and asserted that communalism and fake nationalism posed a greater threat to the nation.

We are a democracy in which every party can contest elections from anywhere. I congratulate Asaduddin Owaisi and his party for entering the fray in Kishanganj and emerging victorious, Manjhi said in a statement here.

I condemn the adverse remarks made by some people against Owaisi. The nation faces a bigger threat from communalism and fake nationalism than from the victory of AIMIM in Kishanganj, said Manjhi, a dalit leader, in a veiled criticism of the BJP and its firebrand leader Giriraj Singh.

Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is a constituent of the five-party Grand Alliance led by RJD. One of the primary reasons why I welcome AIMIMs victory in Kishanganj is that in the Seemanchal region of Bihar, dalits and muslims face the threat of being dubbed as outsiders and terrorists in the name of implementation of NRC.

Results of the by-election will pave the way for nation-wide dalit-muslim unity, he added.

Formerly with the JD(U), Manjhi had quit it and floated HAM in 2015 in protest against having been made to step down as chief minister to make way for the return of his political mentor Nitish Kumar.

He had started off as a constituent of the NDA wherein he was welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called Manjhis forced resignation an insult to the ‘Mahadalit’ class.

He walked out of the BJP-led coalition in less than a year after Kumars return to the same in July, 2017. However, Manjhi has been sore with the RJD ever since the Grand Alliance was drubbed in the general elections this year.

Out of five assembly seats where by-polls were held earlier this week, the RJD had fielded its candidates in all except Kishanganj a seat which was held by the Congress. This time Congress ended up a distant third and forfeited its deposit.

The RJD won two seats and lost one Nathnagar by a margin of votes that was less than the tally of the HAM candidate whom Manjhi had fielded as a token of protest against Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Lalu Prasad.

Manjhi in touch with NDA partner for Jharkhand polls

Source: deccanherald.com

Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday disclosed that his Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), a constituent of the opposition Mahagathbandhan in the state, would be contesting the upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand in collaboration with an NDA partner.

“Our talks with Ajsu is in the final stages. Seat sharing arrangements will be decided soon. We hope it will be mutually beneficial and there will be a seamless transfer of votes during elections”, Manjhi told PTI in Gaya, his native district.

Asked why he would not be contesting as part of the Mahagathbandhan in the neighbouring state, Manjhi said “HAM was never a part of the Mahagathbandhan in Jharkhand. We joined the coalition comprising Congress, RJD and others only for Bihar. Beyond the boundaries of the state, the alliance does not exist. So our move should not be seen as a betrayal”.

He also declined to comment as to whether he was in talks with leaders of the BJP, the senior NDA partner in Jharkhand, and added: “our alliance with Ajsu will be taking place mainly because of the personal friendship I have with its president Sudesh Mahto”.

He also denied that the development was a signal of his plans to return to the NDA in Bihar.

Manjhi had floated his own party after walking out of JD(U) in 2015 after he was asked to step down as chief minister to make way for the return of his political mentor Nitish Kumar.

The Mahadalit leader went on to contest the Assembly polls held later that year as an NDA constituent, but his party fared poorly as only Manjhi managed to win one of the two seats he had contested.

About six months after Kumar returned to the NDA in July 2017, Manjhi changed track and joined the Mahagathbandhan, which then comprised only the Congress and the RJD.

The RJD, which at present has the highest number of MLAs in Bihar, helped his son Santosh Manjhi get a berth in the legislative council.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Mahagathbandhan came to include Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP and Mukesh Sahni’s VIP and Manjhi initially threw a fit stating that his party should be given a share of seats that was greater than those of all alliance partners except the RJD.

He, however, relented and settled for only three – far less than the nine given to Congress and five to RLSP. At the hustings, his party lost all the seats including Gaya where he was pitted against a relative newcomer Vijay Manjhi.

Earlier, Manjhi toured the adjoining Nawada district where he came out in defence of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan saying he must not resign though he should accept the demand for an apology over his remark about Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Rama Devi.

“When brothers and sisters, mothers and sons meet and plant a kiss by way of affection, the gesture is not seen as having sexual overtones. Azam Khan’s words are not being taken in the right spirit. I, therefore, hold the opinion that he need not resign but since all parties have objections he should tender an apology and be done with the matter.