A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
On August 28, Jitan Ram Manjhi, chief of the Hindustani Awam Morcha or HAM (Secular), visited Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar at his residence. It was a signal that the self-appointed champion of the Mahadalits (the most marginalised among the Scheduled Castes) had returned to his erstwhile mentor’s camp in the run-up to the Bihar assembly election.
The move was only to be expected after Manjhi formally quit the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Grand Alliance on August 20. The former chief minister (May 2014-February 2015) has had stints in both the NDA and Grand Alliance camps, with his party polling around 2.3 per cent of the vote in the 2015 assembly election and the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Bihar is set for a high-stakes election next month. In 2015, Nitish was in alliance with Lalu Prasad
