Jitan Ram Manjhi slams BJP for beef issue

Not only the BJP, the NDA allies, too, are assessing their defeat.

Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party, Hindustani Awam Morcha, which had contested the election in Bihar from 20 seats, won just one seat. Manjhi himself lost the election from Mukhdumpur constituency but managed to scrape through by winning a seat for himself from Imamganj by defeating a star candidate of the JD(U) — Bihar Assembly speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary.

Holding the BJP and RSS responsible for the NDA debacle, he raised questions about the timing of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s “anti-reservation” statement.

Slamming the BJP for raking up the beef issue and other communal issues, Mr Manjhi said, “The beef issue was one of the reasons behind NDA’s bad performance in the election.” The HAM chief had fielded four Muslim candidates from his party. HAM sources said, “The beef statement angered the mahadalit and minority communities, who had earlier assured the party all support.”

Other NDA workers, too, reacted sharply, saying, “We had not expected this kind of result. Communal issues and anti-reservation statements should have been avoided.” While the BJP ended up getting 53 seats, parties with a strong dalit base, like LJP and RLSP, won only two seats each and HAM won just one seat.

After reports of growing resentment within the NDA, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, in order to pacify Mr Manjhi, visited his residence and had an hour-long closed-door discussion with him.

HAM spokesperson Danish Rizwan said, “The two leaders met and assessed the NDA’s loss in the Assembly election.” However, HAM sources said Mr Sushil Kumar Modi’s sudden meeting with Mr Manjhi was a fallout of his long telephonic conversation with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

According to JD(U) leaders, “Manjhi had claimed massive mahadalit and Musahar votes in his favour, but it remained intact with our alliance.” They said that “Lalu Yadav’s MYD (Muslim-Yadav-Dalit) combination and Nitish Kumar’s vikas purush image worked”.