Jitan Ram Manjhi has found his Chanakya. In Narendra Singh, the once student leader of the JP Movement of the seventies who has since had a track record of flip-flops.
Singh, the agriculture minister, has emerged as Manjhi's chief strategist, the most vocal critic of Nitish Kumar. He was the one who moved the proposal for dissolving the Bihar Assembly in the controversial cabinet meeting on Saturday. He is the one always visible with Manjhi.
Even as numbers appear to elude Manjhi, Singh on Monday declared that they had the strength and insisted 140 MLAs supported them.
Known to be short-tempered, Singh was once considered a taller leader than both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar in the students' movement. He was the convener of the Chhaatra Vahini, the organisation which spearheaded the agitation against the Congress regime when Lalu and Nitish were members of the committee.
"But he lost out to both as backward caste politics started to dominate Bihar politics," said a close associate.
He has been switching loyalties frequently. But what makes him one of the sought-after leaders is the fact that he wields considerable influence in Jamui district - particularly among the Rajputs, the caste to which he belongs - and added to that, he is a powerful orator.
From the then Janata Party of the 1970s, he switched over to the Congress and returned to the socialist group as the Janata Dal swept to power in 1989.
In Lalu's ministry, he was health and education minister before he revolted against the chief minister and was sacked. Briefly he went into political oblivion as he failed to make it to the Assembly in the 1995 state elections. But he came back five years later, winning from two Assembly constituencies in the 2000 elections.
When Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan floated his Lok Janshakti Party, Singh became his leading strategist. In the 2005 February Assembly polls, the LJP won 28 seats - sealing Lalu Prasad's chances of returning to power. As the LJP held the key to power in Bihar, the party refused to support either Lalu or Nitish despite the fact that Paswan was a part of the UPA and a Union minister.
It was Narendra Singh who played a key role in breaking away 17 MLAs of the LJP and attempting to form a government with Nitish - a move that resulted in dissolution of the Assembly which did not have a single day's sitting and ultimately led to fresh polls in November 2005.
Singh has been a minister since November 2005 without a break. He suffered a personal tragedy in 2010 when his MLA son Ajay Singh committed suicide.
Singh has been known to be a maverick. When the BJP was an ally, he was charged with pushing a legislator from the stage. He ruffled up an official at the gates of the Bihar Assembly simply because he was asked to show his identity. In the last Lok Sabha campaign, he created a flutter in Jamui where Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary was the JDU candidate. From the stage, in presence of Nitish, Singh said if he wanted, he could get Chaudhary's deposit forfeited in the election. Political circles believe that his supporters worked for Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan and ensured his victory.
When JDU broke its alliance with the BJP, Singh staked his claim to the post of chief minister or at least being named as the deputy chief minister.
Nitish refused to oblige and made Manjhi the chief minister. From them on, at regular intervals, he has made Nitish's life uncomfortable with his statements and sometimes even publicly praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He openly backed Manjhi when there was growing noise for his ouster within the party.
JDU leaders smirked when pointed out that Manjhi is relying on Singh for advice. "Given his track record of deserting his leaders, Manjhi cannot rely on him. Who knows, Narendra Singh could land in the BJP," said a senior JDU leader.
