The workers and supporters of HAM (Hindustani Awam Morcha) and VIP (Vikashsheel Insan Party) are feeling let down by the Janata Dal United and Bharatiya Janata Party leadership as the two new entrants in the National Democratic Alliance have got even lesser number of seats than offered by the Grand Alliance.
The Janata Dal United has spared just seven seats for the HAM, when the truth is that the former chief minister and its leader Jitan Ram Manjhi has been demanding at least three times more the number of seats from the Grand Alliance. If the sources are to be believed the HAM was to get a dozen seats in the Grand Alliance.
Though Manjhi is silent as he has got busy in filing his nomination papers from Imamganj Assembly seat in Gaya district. But the lower level party functionaries are upset over the way Manjhi has made compromise just for himself and family. That is why the party is witnessing desertion. Two of its leaders who contested the last Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully have already left the party.
The case in the Vikassheel Insan Party is even more complicated. The party chief Mukesh Sahni dared to openly charge the RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in a Press conference that he has been stabbed in the back when the latter announced that his party would leave seats for VIP.
The media had a day earlier already highlighted that the RJD had agreed to leave a dozen seats for VIP. But Mukesh Sahni told the media persons that he had been demanding 25 seats, besides the post of deputy chief minister.
After the Press conference his supporters raised storm and charged the RJD leaders with betraying the VIP. But when chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Modi on October 6 held a Press conference there was no scope for Manjhi and Sahni. The next day Sushil Modi announced that his party, the BJP, would be leaving 11 seats for the VIP. Later it was said that the BJP would leave one Council seat too.
Sahni, who was present on the occasion, made no demand for the post of deputy CM fully knowing that Sushil Modi is not going to leave this post. Sahni praised the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Oct 7 development angered many supporters of VIP, who are in private blaming the leadership for making a deal with the BJP and in the process had sacrificed the interest of other committed workers.
Earlier, the RLSP had also left the GA charging the RJD leadership with becoming too arrogant and not leaving much seats. But the NDA even refused to entertain the demand of party leader Upendra Kushwaha. In contrast, the Grand Alliance showed extra generosity in the last Lok Sabha election by leaving five seats for RLSP and three each for HAM and VIP.
