The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a partner of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is keeping a studied silence on the the expected return of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) to the NDA fold in Bihar.
The LJP’s president Chirag Paswan and patriarch Ram Vilas Paswan have not commented on the development. Jitan Ram Manjhi, who leads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, walked out of the Opposition grand alliance on Thursday.
Addressing an online media conference on Friday, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan ducked a question on whether the LJP had been kept in the loop about Mr. Manjhi’s re-entry to the NDA. He said that only his son and HAM president Chirag Paswan would comment on political issues.
For the LJP, Mr. Manjhi’s return restricts the elbow room for negotiation both arithmetically and politically. Mr. Manjhi was in the NDA during the Bihar Assembly polls in 2015. The 243 seats were divided between four partners: BJP (160), LJP (40), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (23) and HAM (20). The big difference this time is the presence of the Janta Dal (United), which was on the other side of the fence in 2015.
A senior LJP leader said, “We have not been consulted so far on Mr. Manjhi’s return. Our seat share arrangement is with the BJP. The JD(U) is a guest in our house, now if they want to bring along another guest in the form of Mr. Manjhi, then they will have to find space themselves to accommodate him.” The LJP has demanded 42 seats and has often asserted that it was willing to strike out on its own if the need arose.
Mr. Manjhi’s presence also dulls Mr. Paswan’s political capital within the NDA as the sole Dalit leader in the alliance. Over last few months, Chirag Paswan has been criticising Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his handling of the migrant crisis, the health care facilities in the State and Patna doing poorly in the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) rankings. The LJP president also openly admitted to discord within the NDA. In a recent interview with The Hindu , he said that he had not spoken to Mr. Kumar for the last year. JD(U) leaders say that Chirag Paswan will not be able to keep up this role with Mr. Manjhi coming in.
