Former chief minister and leader of Hindustani Awam Morcha Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday called on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. However, later talking to the media Manjhi said that the meeting with Nitish had nothing to do with politics and was confined to the development of the region.
On being asked whether his party would be joining the National Democratic Alliance or not he said that the decision in this regard would be announced by August 30. Earlier, it had been reported that HAM is likely to get seven to nine seats from the Janata Dal United quota. That Report had also said that Manjhi was in fact urged to merge his party with the Janata Dal United but the formula could not be worked out.
Manjhi’s decision to meet Nitish came just a day after the two Left parties, the CPI and CPI(M) decided to join the Grand Alliance. The seat-sharing talks would be held later.
Reports suggest that the leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of RJD and the young CPI leader and former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union Kanhaiya Kumar are likely to share platforms during the election campaign.
The third left party, the CPI(ML) has not yet announced any such decision. It has three MLAs in the present Assembly while the earlier two Left parties have none.Political observers are not sure whether the coming of Left parties into Grand Alliance would compensate the loss suffered after the exit of Manjhi, but the coming together of Tejashwi and Kanhaiya have certainly alarmed the NDA leaders.
