After two days of political drama, Nitish Kumar on Monday evening ended the suspense over the next Bihar Chief Minister and picked up experienced but low-profile Jeetan Ram Manjhi as his successor. Nitish, along with Manjhi, Janata Dal(U) national president Sharad Yadav and State unit chief Vashisht Narain Singh, called on Governor DY Patil and staked claim to form a new Government. Manjhi will be Bihar’s 23rd Chief Minister.
A Mahadalit by caste, Manjhi currently holds the SC/ST, OBC, EBC Welfare Ministry. He comes from the Mushar community, which is placed at the lowest strata of the society in Bihar. Mushars were primarily rat-catchers.
Manjhi has submitted a list of all 117 JD(U) MlAs, along with two independents and one CPI MlA, Nitish told the media after coming out of the Raj Bhavan. The Bihar Assembly has 239 members at present.“Manjhi, 68, is an experienced Minister and party colleague for a long time,” said Nitish when asked why he chose Manjhi as his successor.
Throughout the day, names of several JD(U) leaders like Bijendra Yadav, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Vashisht Narain Singh, Vijay Chaudhury, Damodar Raut, Ramnath Thakur, and Nitish’s close aide and Rajya Sabha member RCP Sinha did the rounds. However, Nitish stunned everyone with his masterstroke by choosing a Mahadalit from Makhdoompur in Gaya.
The choice of Manjhi will help Nitish keep his hold over the Mahadalit vote bank in the next year’s Assembly polls. Nitish has sent a clear signal that he would go to the polls by mobilising non-Yadav OBCs, extremely backward castes and Mahadalits. Manjhi contested the last lok Sabha poll as JD(U) candidate from Gaya reserved lok Sabha constituency, but came third.
After Nitish Kumar refused to withdraw his resignation, party MlAs authorised him to choose a new leader. He was also authorised to coordinate between the party and the Government while leading the party in next Assembly elections scheduled for November next year.Significantly, before the meeting of the JD(U) legislature party at the Chief Minister’s official residence, several meetings were held at the residence of party leaders like Shyam Rajak, Nitish Mishra and Narendra Singh, who later declared their complete faith in the leadership of Nitish Kumar.
However, sundry voice of dissension too came from the party. Party MlAs Ravindra Rai and Aniruddh Yadav, both loyalists of Sharad Yadav, held Nitish responsible for the party’s debacle in lok Sabha polls. However, the entire party stood behind Nitish.After the JD(U) legislature party meeting at the Chief Minister’s official residence, the party leaders passed a four-point resolution which State party chief Vashisht Narain Singh revealed before the media.
“First, we welcomed his decision to resign from the post of Chief Minister on high moral ground, and second, we reposed our complete faith in his leadership. Third, we authorised him to be our party’s leader in 2015 Assembly poll, and fourth he would work as a coordinator between our Government and the party,” said State JD(U) president.
Earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar came out of his residence and addressed party leaders and supporters assembled at the gate since morning and explained to them the reasons behind his decision to step down from the post of Chief Minister.
“It is a well thought decision and not an emotional one. I’ve taken this decision to resign on a high moral ground after party’s dismal performance in the lok Sabha poll,” he told party workers. Nitish Kumar also assured his party supporters that in next Assembly election, JD(U) would again come to power and he would be the Chief Minister. He also appealed them to keep their morale high.
Meanwhile, the BJP came heavily on Nitish Kumar while questioning the political “morality and principle” he cited as reasons for his resignation.“Now, Nitish Kumar wants to appoint a dummy Chief Minister like Manmohan Singh and it will a remote control Government,” charged senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. He also said that since Nitish Kumar has no courage to face Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country, he was taking an “escape route” from getting into embarrassing situation.
Sushil Modi said while Nitish Kumar talked about “political morality and principle” for his resignation, his party indulged in all sorts of immoral and unprincipled ways. “Resignation of three RJD MlAs to help JD(U) prove majority inside Assembly clearly showed this,” he said.State BJP president Mangal Pandey said that since the JD(U) has fragmented into several groups and blocks, the Governor should take notice of it and ask for physical parade of JD(U) MlAs. “The Governor should physically verify whether the JD(U) has 121 MlAs,” he said.