Bihar polls: JD(U), BJP shift focus on Jitan Ram Manjhi

PATNA: The focus of leading NDA partners JD(U) and BJP has shifted onto former CM and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi whose deadline served to the RJD and others in the grand alliance to constitute the coordination committee by July 2 has lapsed.
Both the JD(U) and BJP appear to be discussing the form in which Manjhi’s return into the NDA fold could occur, sources said. From the NDA platform, his party had contested 20 seats in alliance with BJP in the 2015 assembly elections and won one seat.
Back in 2015, CM Nitish Kumar and his JD(U) had formed the grand alliance with RJD and Congress out of which he walked out later in July 2017.“Our leader (Manjhi) is now free to take his next political move in the best interest of the party,” HAM(S) spokesman Danish Rizwan said and added: “The RJD and other constituents of the grand alliance, like the Congress, did not take seriously the ultimatum that our leader had served.”
It is clear that Manjhi has virtually quit the grand alliance. The decision in this regard would be formally announced in the next couple of days, HAM(S) sources said. The most obvious course open for him is to walk back into the NDA fold and, in fact, talks in this regard have been going on with both the BJP and the JD(U) leadership, sources said.
“Any leader or party that decides to join the NDA must be clear on two counts. They have to accept and believe in the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar,” state BJP spokesman Prem Ranjan Patel said.
However, Manjhi’s likely return to the NDA has become seemingly easy, as the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Chirag Paswan has already strained its relation with Nitish by issuing critical remarks on his government and demanding more assembly seats to contest.
Manjhi and Chirag’s father Ram Vilas Paswan had not been comfortable with each other, even though both were part of the NDA in the 2015 assembly elections. They did not benefit the BJP as LJP could win only two of the 23 seats it had contested.
The only way to keep Chirag in the NDA is to merge HAM(S) with JD(U) to attain the 2014 days, while Chirag is humoured by conceding his demands for more than 23 seats that the LJP contested in 2015, NDA sources said.