Jitan Manjhi's son resigns from Nitish cabinet

Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) leader and a minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet Santosh Suman Manjhi on Tuesday resigned from the cabinet. His resignation has been accepted by the chief minister. Manjhi was SC/ST welfare minister in the Nitish Kumar government and his party was part of the opposition grand alliance.

With his resignation, the HAM is now out of the Grand Alliance. “We were asked to merge our party with the JD(U), which was not acceptable to us. After discussing with our leader Jitan Ram Manjhi and other party leaders, we decided to quit the government,” Manjhi told ET. The possibility of Manjhi quitting the alliance started floating after HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi met Union home minister Amit Shah in April this year in Delhi.

While all the other partners of the Grand Alliance have been invited for the June 23 opposition meeting in Patna, Manjhi was not invited. “After meeting the home minister, we also met the chief minister in Bihar. In politics, meeting with leaders is not a strange thing. We will meet with our workers and leaders and take a call on a future course of action in the next three to four days,” Manjhi told ET. The HAM has four MLAs and one MLC in Bihar.


“When two parties work together it is natural that they become one andthe party is strengthened. In his resignation letter, Manjhi has mentioned that it is difficult for him to work under the leadership of Nitish Kumar and now he is out of Grand Alliance,” Vijay Kumar Choudhary, senior ministerand JD(U) leader told ET. Meanwhile, Nitish called his party MLA Ratnesh Sada to Patna who is likely to replace Manjhi as the SC/ST welfare minister.