Jitan Ram Manjhi, the Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) leader, on Tuesday gave jitters to chief minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar ahead of its floor test by demanding another cabinet berth and better departments for his ministers.
Bihar’s floor test is on February 12.
What has further queered the pitch is that the Opposition Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) has offered the post of chief minister to Manjhi in an attempt to woo him, and the offer still stands. Manjhi recently admitted to receiving such a proposal.
Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman is a minister in the newly sworn-in NDA government. He has been allocated the information technology and the scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) welfare departments.
“Hamara ek roti se pet nahi bharta hai. Hum do-teen roti ki maang karenge. Kam se kam do roti to dijiye. (Our stomach does not fill with a single roti. We will demand two or three rotis. Give us at least two rotis),” former chief minister Manjhi said while demanding at least two cabinet berths for his party.
He also took umbrage at the portfolios given to his son and asked why better departments were not given to him.
“I was given this department (SC and ST welfare) when I was a minister. My son is also given the same department. Why is it so? Don’t we have the capability to head better departments? Can’t we do the work of the road construction or building construction departments? I feel sad about this,” Manjhi said.
Suman had been given the SC and ST welfare department even in his previous stints as a minister in the Grand Alliance government and the NDA government.
HAMS has four MLAs and they drive up the NDA numbers to 128, which is six more than the 122 needed for a majority in the 243-member Legislative Assembly. Among the allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 78 and Nitish’s Janata Dal United (JDU) 45. The lone Independent Sumit Kumar Singh is with the alliance and has been given a cabinet berth.
Manjhi, while pitching for one more cabinet berth, has been citing the example of the Independent MLA Singh and asking for at least two berths among his legislators.
Without Manjhi’s party, the NDA will have just 124 MLAs on its side, leaving it in an extremely vulnerable position. Any shift of a couple of MLAs could bring down the present government.
On the other hand, Mahagathbandhan has 114 MLAs, while AIMIM is not allied so far.
A rumour erupted on Sunday that Suman has resigned, forcing him to take to social media platform X to deny it.
Though Manjhi and his son have declared that they would never leave the NDA, those in politics assert, “never say never”.
Meanwhile, the BJP and JDU are silent on the entire issue.