Bihar: Jitan Ram Manjhi quits NDA

Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi walked out of the National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday, February 28. Manjhi had met Rabri Devi, wife of jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at her residence in Patna on Wednesday morning.

The move by Manjhi comes after reports that he has been unhappy with his treatment by the BJP within the NDA.

Manjhi’s unhappiness increased after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) snapped ties with the RJD and Congress and dissolved the Mahagathbandhan government, only to rejoin the NDA and form a BJP-JDU government in Bihar.

This move by BJP left its junior allies including HAM, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party dismayed, seeing space for them in the NDA’s scheme of things in Bihar shrink even further.

Manjhi was also enraged by the reported police brutality against Mahadalits in Nandan village, Buxar last month, after Nitish Kumar’s convoy was stoned.