- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has found itself getting snubbed by Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar more than once, is eager to take an electoral revenge in the next general elections and its strategy-making apparatus is working overtime to achieve the goal.
On Thursday (13), former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is also the founder of Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular0 of HAM-S, was set to meet India’s home minister and top BJP leader Amit Shah in New Delhi.
India Today cited sources as saying that Manjhi’s meeting with Shah was related to seeking ‘Bharat Ratna’, the country’s highest civilian award, for ‘Mountain Man’ Dasarath Manjhi from Bihar who had carved out a road from mountains himself after his wife fell from a rocky ridge, and former chief ministers of Bihar Sri Krishna Singh and Karpoori Thakur.
Manjhi. who passed away in 2007, belonged to the same ‘Musahar’ community as the former chief minister.
However, in Bihar, speculation is rife that the 78-year-old Manjhi’s upcoming meeting with Shah was more about politics. The HAM-S leader doesn’t have the best of relations with Nitish Kumar and is likely to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 general polls, the report added.
The Manjhi-Shah meeting also takes place a day after Kumar and his deputy Yejashwi Yadav met Indian National Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi in Delhi where they discussed the need for opposition’s unity in the 2024 elections.
The BJP reportedly is looking for smaller alliance partners in Bihar to bolster the NDA’s chances against the grand alliance of Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Left parties.
According to the India Today report, the saffron party, which was in power in Bihar till last year when Kumar dumped it, is also trying to form alliance with smaller players such as Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Vikassheel Party, among others.
