Even as the RJD and JD(U) are still struggling to finalise the merger plans and make progress on seat sharing for the October Assembly elections, expelled JD(U) leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday announced the formal launching of his political party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). Promising to contest all the 243 Assembly seats without any pre-poll alliance, Manjhi declared Nitish Kumar as his enemy number one.
Manjhi announced that Election Commission would be approached for the registration of HAM as a political party. However, neither Manjhi nor any of his supporting legislators has been named as member of the party of which former Minister Shakuni Chaudhary has been named as president. Manjhi said, “Once the party is registered we will become its part.”
Manjhi and his supporting legislators, who are rebel JD(U) lawmakers are apprehensive of losing their members of the legislature if they join another party. Asked if his party could approach the Congress for poll ties, Manjhi shot back, “We will maintain a distance from any party having any kind of tie up with Nitish Kumar.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday returned from New Delhi after a three-day stay during which he held parleys with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD supreme lalu Prasad on the merger. But, political sources said, differences still persist between Nitish and lalu over seat sharing even as the Janata Parivar constituents have agreed on the merger.
Nitish was not very keen to tell journalists about the merger talks and merely said the merger process was on the right track. “We have detailed discussions with Mulayam Singh Yadav, lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav. We also had talks within the JD(U). Everything is going on smoothly and positive results will emerge but there is nothing more to share with you,” he said.
Among the main issues the most concerned was the symbol of the new party as the Samajwadi Party insists on retaining cycle. The RJD and JD(U) are skeptical about the symbol as it might hit their prospects in the election with cycle being an unknown symbol in Bihar.
Seat sharing between the RJD and JD(U) is also a matter of concern. While the JD(U) wants the 2010 Assembly election outcome should be a standard, RJD insisted that 2014 lok Sabha election be made standard. In 2010 JD(U), which had alliance with the BJP then, had won 115 seats and RJD had a poor score of only 22. But in the last general election which the two parties contested alone JD(U) could win just two seats and RJD four. Sources indicated that the two parties might agree on equal number of seats; 100 each to them and remaining 43 seats could be left for the pre-poll allies like Congress and CPI.