Gaya: Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday demanded that his party be allotted a Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming elections failing which the party will not support the BJP-led coalition in the next Lok Sabha poll and two Assembly by-polls.

"The NDA must announce at least one Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) leader among its candidates for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. If that does not happen, our party workers will not campaign for candidates of the coalition in the by-polls," Manjhi said. The Rajya Sabha election is slated for March 23.

The by-polls for the Araria Lok Sabha seat, and the Jehanabad and Bhabua Assembly seats are scheduled to be held on March 11.

Manjhi said: "For more than a year-and-a-half, I and my party have been working tirelessly to strengthen the NDA in Bihar. But as the saying goes 'even a mother does not feed her child until he or she cries and demands attention'."

Manjhi had formed HAMS after walking out of the JDU to protest alleged pressure to step down as chief minister in 2015 and make way for the return of Nitish Kumar. He had fought the Assembly polls held the same year as part of the NDA which lost to the Grand Alliance comprising the JDU, the RJD and the Congress.

Recently, the former chief minister had expressed a wish that his party be allowed to contest the by-poll from the Jehanabad Assembly seat, but withdrew the demand following an alleged cold response from the BJP. The seat is now being contested by the JDU, which had initially announced that it would not contest any of the three seats going for by-polls.