Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar's efforts to woo former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi by not only starting five projects in Manjhi's native village but also praising his work as chief minister has surprised even his party leaders.
"If Manjhi had worked so well as the chief minister then why did we remove him?," asked a JDU leader who did not want to be named.
After July, Nitish and Manjhi find themselves on the same boat. Before July this year, Manjhi did not have a kind word to say about Nitish and Nitish ignored his criticism. But at Mahakar village in Gaya district, Manjhi reciprocated by acknowledging him as mentor.
In political circles the two amending their relationship is seen as a move of Nitish engineering - getting leaders of other parties to join him to become a formidable political force. Manjhi, though he could not deliver for NDA, is still considered a symbol of pride for Mahadalits.
The Mahadalit segment of votes was created by Nitish in the run-up to the 2010 Assembly polls consisting of 21 categories of Dalits leaving out the Paswans of whom Ram Vilas Paswan is the acknowledged leader. It paid dividends in the polls as NDA won 206 of the 243 seats and parties like CPI(ML) of whom these segment were considered supporters, were wiped out.
Making Manjhi his successor after the defeat in Lok Sabha in 2014 was aimed at strengthening the Mahadalit card. However, the spat with Manjhi only weakened it. After Manjhi's removal, there were protests across the state by Dalits. It was Lalu who polarised votes on "upper castes versus downtrodden" which saw the Grand Alliance through with flying colours.
Closing ranks with Manjhi, say JDU sources, is a "natural development" after they joined the BJP which is no longer ready to play second fiddle. Manjhi has been complaining about being ignored by the BJP after the defeat in 2015.
He was not made a governor of a state - a strong rumour doing rounds in political circles, Nitish also not been able to get his way with the BJP - first being denied a ministerial berth at the Centre and the open snub by PM Narendra Modi in ignoring his request to make Patna University a central university. Joining hands with Manjhi will only strengthen Nitish's bargaining power as BJP would not like to make such a combination angry.
The Number II of the JDU, Sharad Yadav, has walked to Lalu's camp. There were indications that Lalu was eying to bring Manjhi to his camp and make his quest for inclusion of Dalit votes in his kitty. Nitish, by going to Mahakar to woo Manjhi, has indicated that he did not want that to happen.
