Jitan Ram Manjhi (File photo)
PATNA: Former Bihar chief minister and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday alleged that he has been treated unfairly within the NDA and indicated that he may have to reconsider his options if his party, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), is not allotted a Rajya Sabha seat.The former CM made the remarks in his Gayaji parliamentary constituency where he addressed a function of his party and later responded to questions from journalists.Manjhi, accompanied by his son Santosh Kumar Suman, HAM’s state minister and national president, spoke of the “treachery” he claimed to have faced in the alliance.Speaking in local dialect Magahi, he said, “We will have to chart our own path if we don’t get our due. My own ministerial berth is no big deal. I will survive politically even if I cease to be in the Union Cabinet.” Manjhi made it clear that his party, of which he is the lone MP, now wanted a berth in the Upper House as well.However, when journalists approached him with more queries, Manjhi backtracked in his characteristic style and said, “Please do not twist my words out of context. I can’t even take a decision of my party because I am not its office-bearer, but only its patron (Sanghrakshak)”. The 80-year-old leader, who floated HAM in 2015, added that his comments were prompted by media reports suggesting that in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in April, the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) would claim two seats each, while one would go to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).He said, “This leaves us with the question what harm is there in the Rajya Sabha elections. Ahead of the 2024 general elections, we were promised two LS seats and one RS seat. We got only one Lok Sabha seat, which we won for the NDA. The promise on the Rajya Sabha seat remains to be fulfilled, and that is what I wanted to highlight before our party workers.”
