Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha has added the suffix ‘Secular’ to its name, purportedly to escape registration woes at the Election Commission (EC).
It will now be known as Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM(S).
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The party, which is the latest to join the NDA in Bihar, has already applied to the EC to be registered as a political party and is currently awaiting its nod as well as allotment of an election symbol.
Its leaders said the addition of the word became necessary when the EC discovered that a political organisation had already been registered in the same name, Morcha State president Shakuni Chaudhary told reporters.
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HAM (Secular) leader and former Bihar minister Nitish Mishra said the registration papers were filed on May 21 and the EC was currently waiting for objections from the public after the organisation published the mandatory advertisement about itself in newspapers across the country.
“The one-month time mandated by the EC for seeking objections to our registration will be over on July 6. The EC will deal with objections, if any, come against us and decide on our registration,” Mr. Mishra added.
The organisation was formed by Mr. Manjhi after he rebelled against JD (U) and resigned from the Chief Minister’s post on February 20 this year.
Kick-starts poll preparations
Meanwhile, the Morcha has kick-started its preparations for the State Assembly elections scheduled for September-October this year.
Mr. Chaudhary said that the Morcha would demand seats only when it would be ready to contest them and sure about notching a victory there.
No seat for minorities
He also took on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad for projecting himself as the well-wisher of the minority community and pointed that RJD did not give the community a single seat out of the 10 it was going to contest in the Legislative Council elections on July 7.