Whose baby is Jitan Ram Manjhi govt: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Claiming that no political party has come forward to endorse the Jitan Ram Manjhi government and it has a support of "just" 12 MLAs, senior JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar today asked "Whose baby is the Manjhi government."

"I want to know which political party is backing the Manjhi government as even the BJP has not come forward to support it publicly," a visibly exasperated Kumar said at a press conference at his official residence.

"There are five major political parties in Bihar...four of them are with us, nobody is backing the Manjhi government at the moment. I want to know whose government it is?" he asked.

The senior JD(U) leader also hit out at Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and alleged he had given "a long rope to Manjhi at the behest of the BJP and the Centre".

This was done to indulge in horsetrading to survive trust vote in the house on February 20 next, Kumar reiterated.

Kumar said the staggering number of 130 MLAs with him, who were paraded at the Raj Bhawan here and in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi, should have been taken into account to give an opportunity to him to form the government.

However, the Governor decided to delay for a long time the process of trust vote apparently to enable Manjhi muster numbers to ensure survival of his 'partyless' government, Kumar added.

Kumar, who had handpicked Manjhi as his successor after quitting the chief minister's post owning moral responsibility for his party's debacle in the general elections last year, scotched the notion that he had chosen the latter keeping into account his mahadalit background.

He had chosen Manjhi as his successor merely because he was a colleague, Kumar claimed.