Friends again: Nitish Kumar visits Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Village

In an apparent gesture of goodwill, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday visited former chief minister and NDA partner Jitan Ram Manjhi’s native village in Gaya district and dedicated several development projects to the people.

Kumar had hand-picked Manjhi to become the chief minister in 2014 following Janata Dal (U)’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls. But the relation between the two soon deteriorated and, subsequently, Manjhi formed his own party, Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM). Now a part of the NDA in Bihar, Manjhi is considered as the BJPled group’s Maha Dalit face.

During his tenure as chief minister, Manjhi had announced several projects in his native village, Mahakar.

Almost two years after, on Wednesday, Kumar inaugurated some of those, including an industrial training institute, a community health centre building, a veterinary health care centre and one community hall, in the presence of Manjhi at a function in Mahakar.

“These projects were initiated by Manjhi during his tenure as CM. He was keen to develop his village. Today, Nitish and Manjhi shared a dais and praised each other,” a source in Gaya told ET over the phone. Kumar also assured Manjhi to give Mahakar the status of a block and build a power substation there.

Kumar visited Mahakar at a time when Manjhi’s supporters are allegedly unhappy with the BJP leadership.