In a new twist to the ongoing fight of supremacy in the JD(U) between Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and his predecessor Nitish Kumar, the ruling party on Friday made a dramatic move by approaching the Assembly Speaker to recognise the party as main Opposition party in place of the BJP. With one week still remaining for the floor test in Bihar to decide the fate of the beleaguered Chief Minister, the BJP and Manjhi have returned the charge of horse-trading to Nitish Kumar. Manjhi as well as senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi accused Nitish of indulging in horse trading.
State JD(U) president Bashistha Narain Singh said on Friday that Manjhi has already been expelled from the party and now he was unattached member. He said his party has more members than the BJP, which is the main Opposition party and demanded that his party’s floor leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary be recognised as leader of Opposition
Amid the fierce and shrieking charges and counter charges by rival factions, CM Manjhi on Friday said Nitish did not only commit galti (mistake) but a ‘maha galti’ (blunder) by appointing him the CM. “He mistook me as his puppet. He wanted to misuse me as his rubber stamp but he erred,” said Manjhi at a Press conference and added that he enjoys a politial career spanning over 35 years and has been MlA and Minister for a longer period.
The BJP which had been accused of horse-trading by Nitish on Thursday, hit back and its senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi hurled a serious allegation on Nitish by saying that he was trying to purchase BJP MlAs by offering each of them Rs2 crore. Though he did not provide a proof to support his charge, the former deputy CM said Nitish himself was a master in horse-trading and the two former CMs Nitish and lalu Prasad left no party from breaking. “Aisa koi saga nahi jisko lalu aur Nitish ne thaga nahi,” he alleged.
Manjhi at his Press conference appeared quite confident and replied the queries with a smile. “I may be poor but I am not dishonest and I have dignity. Nobody can run me through remote control. In politics I have not sold my conscience. I am working for the welfare of poor and my target is to work for those sections of the society in whose name schemes are made but the actual benefit do not reach them. I wanted to do a lot of works but hurdles were made for me. The middlemen are everywhere including in the Ministries and I cannot tolerate them. When I started campaign against them some leader of my party took it as anti-party activities. I have expanded the vote-bank of JD(U),” he claimed. He also reiterated that commission in big projects reach to the highest level.
Hitting hard at his mentor Nitish, the CM said he would always maintain stony silence on all the happenings when party spokesmen hurled accusations on me and his silence like that of Bhishma Pitamah has caused this Mahabharat in the party. Manjhi said he would seek trust vote on the floor of the Assembly on February 20 and prove his majority. But he suspected the impartiality of the Assembly Speaker Uday Narain Chaudhary saying he recognised Nitish as leader of the House and terminated the membership of 8 JD(U) MlAs through manipulation.
Thanking Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi for fixing the date for floor test, Manjhi demanded that there should be secret voting. “He (Nitish) is doing horse-trading. He took MlAs to Delhi and spent lakhs of rupees on each of them. I am standing alone and welcome help of any MlA of any party. And I am confident that I will prove majority,” said Manjhi and even declared that he would expand his Cabinet on either February 20 evening or next day.
The BJP stood by its stand to clarify its stand on support to Manjhi only during the voting on confidence motion but Modi said he favoured secret voting. On JD(U)’s demand for recognition as main Opposition party, Modi made fun of the move and said all the Minister of Manjhi were still in the JD(U). “One group wants to sit on Treasury Benches and another on Opposition benches. They are making mockery of the parliamentary democracy,” he said.
Modi said the governance became a victim from the day Nitish severed ties with the BJP in June 2013 and alleged that under Nitish and Manjhi, Bihar went back to ten years. On the fight between Nitish and Manjhi, he said the Mahadalit leader emerged as an icon for his society and became a big challenger to Nitish. The JD(United) has divided between JD(Nitish) and JD(Manjhi), he added.