The crucial executive committee meeting of Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM-Secular) that was supposed to take place in Patna on June 18 has been postponed.
Now the meeting will be held on June 19.
According to party insiders, the meeting was postponed at the request of some party MLAs as they were unable to reach Patna on Sunday. The HAM(S) has a total of four MLAs and one MLC.
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"This will be the first meeting of the executive committee of the party after snapping ties with the Grand Alliance government in Bihar. The party in its executive committee meeting, which will be chaired by the party's national president and former Bihar Minister Santosh Kumar Suman, will decide the future course of action", said a senior party leader.
Mr. Suman, who is the son of former Bihar CM and HAM(S) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, resigned from Nitish Kumar's Cabinet on June 13 saying, "I quit the Minister's post to protect the party after Nitish Kumar's JD(U) gave a proposal to merge the HAM(S) with the JD(U)".
After snapping ties with the grand alliance, Mr. Manjhi accused the Nitish Kumar Government of working against the interest of the common people.
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A day after Mr. Suman’s resignation, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar charged Mr. Manjhi with "spying on Mahagathbandhan allies" for the benefit of the BJP and claimed his exit was good riddance.
Mr. Kumar admitted that Mr. Manjhi wanted to be a part of the June 23 Opposition parties meet but he was apprehensive that the latter might leak details of the conclave to the BJP.
“He [Mr. Manjhi] was in constant touch with BJP leaders. He recently met several BJP leaders… He wanted to be part of the June 23 meeting of Opposition leaders… but I had apprehensions that he might leak issues/matters that will be discussed on June 23. I, therefore, asked him to merge HAM(S) with the JD(U). He said he could not do so, so I asked him to leave the grand alliance…it is good that he has gone away,” Mr. Kumar had said.
