Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said on Thursday that if there were greater political awareness among Dalits they would be able to choose their own leader after the Assembly polls. “I did not become Chief Minister on my own. If you all shun alcoholism and become more aware you could choose your own leader [Chief Minister],” Mr. Manjhi said in Gaya.
He was handpicked by Mr. Kumar as Chief Minister after the worst performance of the Janata Dal (United) in the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, at a public meeting in Begusarai, Mr. Manjhi said he would aim at bigger development in the State. “In 2012-13, during Nitish Kumar’s regime, the State’s annual budget was Rs. 38,000 crore, which in my time 2014-15 has gone up to Rs. 42,000 crore.”
Political observers say Mr. Manjhi is nursing the ambition to become the community’s undisputed leader, and riding on this support, wants to continue to be Chief Minister even after the Assembly elections, due next year in October-November.
Earlier, Mr. Kumar had cultivated the Dalits, comprising 16 per cent of the electorate, to get their votes. Along with the support of Extremely Backward Castes (EBC), Mr. Kumar managed a scintillating performance in the 2010 Assembly polls.
However, when the BJP decimated the JD(U) along with the RJD and the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Kumar chose to appoint a Dalit leader in his place, with an eye on consolidating the community’s vote bank.
Mr. Kumar had also got a resolution passed that he would be the ultimate commander of the party in the Assembly polls.
He also formed a “grand alliance” with the RJD and the Congress but now the three parties have been attacking one another over the question of leadership of the alliance.
