Santosh Kumar Suman, the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Welfare Minister and son of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, resigned on Tuesday in a major setback to the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government in Bihar.
The move comes just 10 days before a mega opposition meeting to challenge the ruling BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Suman is also the president of the Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM), an ally of the Grand Alliance government.
HAM was founded by Jitan Ram Manjhi in 2015 and has a total of four seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, of which Suman is the current MLC. It is a strong regional party with a large number of supporters from backward and backward classes.
After submitting her resignation to Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Chowdhary, Suman accused CM Nitish Kumar of pressurizing her father to merge HAM with Janata Dal United (JD-U). “I have resigned from the cabinet. We were being forced to merge with JD-U, but we did not accept that offer. An attempt was made to destroy our party. I spoke to Nitish Kumar before resigning. We set out to escape from the lion in the ‘jungle’ as the lion always tries to catch the goat. We have decided to fight alone.”
Suman further said that currently the party is in alliance with JD-U, further strategy will be decided later. “We have not decided whether we will forge an alliance with the BJP or not. But we will sit and talk about future politics. My innings in the Grand Alliance is over and now it is up to them to decide. The ball is now in their court. I am ready for the new innings.
Reacting to the resignation, former minister Shahnawaz Hussain said in a poetic manner, ‘One by one everyone will leave you. The countdown has begun for the Grand Alliance. Lalu and Nitish will be left alone. The people of Bihar have rejected this alliance. It is clear that there is a deep rift in the Grand Alliance. Opposition unity is just a farce.”
Former JDU stalwart and now RLJD national president tweeted, “It is enough to move a brick to demolish a dilapidated fort. This is just a trailer. See what happens next. Soon the scene of ‘The End’ will also come.”
Some JD-U ministers were not too surprised by the resignation, yet they are hopeful that Manjhi will not break the alliance. However, minister Leshi Singh told News18, “Nitish Kumar recently made Jitan Ram Manjhi the chief minister of Bihar and gave him his chair. Don’t know why he is not satisfied. But even if the alliance breaks, there will be no impact on the Grand Alliance government. Many people come and go. This is not a big issue for our strong government.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MP Chirag Paswan remarked that whoever trusted and went back to Nitish Kumar got cheated. “This resignation tells a lot about how Nitish Kumar insults those coming from backward classes. On one hand Nitish ji is trying to unite all the opposition parties and on the other hand his own base is slipping away. There will be more such things in the times to come. I do not know how other opposition parties will trust a leader who cannot protect even his own house.
During the meeting with Nitish Kumar on Friday, Manjhi demanded at least five seats for his party in the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year. Suman had also said last week that the party would not agree to the offer of less than five of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Earlier this year, during his Guru Sampark Yatra, Manjhi questioned the working style of the Nitish-led government and said, “My son deserves to be the chief minister. Many people are trying to become the chief minister of Bihar, and my son can teach them to read.”
Manjhi was part of the RJD-led coalition in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which were fought jointly by the JD-U and the BJP. As a Dalit leader, he has a strong vote base in the ‘Manjhi’ community in different parts of Bihar.
However, if HAM walks out of the coalition, it will have no bearing on the survival of the government.
Of the 243 seats, the grand alliance has 166 MLAs, including RJD 80, JD-U 45, Congress 19, HAM 4, Left parties 16, AIMIM 1 and 1 independent, while the BJP has 77 in the state. He is an MLA. Meeting.