Patna, Feb. 28: Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi too was budgeting - albeit in a different manner - on a day Arun Jaitley presented the Union budget.

Charting his future course, Manjhi launched the Hindustani Awam Morcha as a precursor to a new political party before the Assembly polls. He used what he described as the JDU Karyakarta Swabhimina Sammelan (JDU workers' pride conclave) organised here, to selectively lacerate Nitish Kumar for subverting the cause of the poor people he (Manjhi) was championing.

Manjhi's was a successful show by all accounts. The 2,000-seat SK Memorial hall was packed to its capacity. Hundreds were seen standing and shouting slogans in Manjhi's favour all through his hour-long speech. The assembly was largely made up of Dalit cadres drawn from various parts of the state.

Incidentally, Manjhi showcased his strength on the eve of the JDU workers' rally at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday.

He had fuelled a huge controversy by claiming in May last year that a temple in north Bihar's Madhubani district was washed after he had offered prayers. Heaping another slur on Nitish, Manjhi said: "The employees at Bihar Niwas, Delhi, told me that Gangajal (Ganga water) had been brought to wash and purify the rooms in the guesthouse I used as chief minister. I was told that Nitish ji will start living in the rooms only after it was purified with gangajal."

The Bihar Niwas employees, however, refused to corroborate Manjhi's charge.

The former chief minister was accompanied by all the former seven ministers - Brishen Patel, Narendra Singh, Nitish Mishra, Shahid Ali Khan, Mahachandra Singh, Vinay Bihari and Samrat Choudhary. Lalu Prasad's brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav and several other former MLAs and senior leaders were also there in attendance.

Manjhi kept Nitish under the focus of his attack. But he lambasted Lalu too for supporting Nitish's "machination" to humiliate the Dalits. The former chief minister, however, spared the BJP. Rather, he mocked at Nitish for shaking hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Lalu's daughter's wedding.

"He (Nitish) has not explained on his hand shaking with the Prime Minister. But he raised a hue and cry of horse-trading when I had gone to meet the Prime Minister for the sole reason of discussing the state's development," he said.

Manjhi said both had an anti-poor "mindset".

"They (Nitish and Lalu) got together to show me the door primarily because they were at unease with the son of a poor parents had started championing the cause of the poor," he said.