The Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) on June 19 announced withdrawal of support to the Nitish Kumar government and submitted the letter of withdrawal to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.
The announcement was made soon after the party convened its national executive committee meeting at the residence of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. At present the HAM has four members in the Bihar Assembly and one member in the Bihar Legislative Council.
However, the withdrawal of support would not have any impact on Mr. Kumar’s government. Out of the 243 Assembly seats, they need 122 to form the government. With the support of the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Left parties and an independent, the Janata Dal (United) has the support of 160 members, which is much above the required number.
Last week, Mr. Manjhi’s son, Santosh Suman, who is also the national president of the HAM (S), resigned from the Cabinet accusing Mr. Kumar of building pressure to merge the party with the Janata Dal (United). During the meeting, the committee authorised Mr. Manjhi and Mr. Suman to take the final decision on the future alliance.
All the members of the executive committee praised the decision taken by the national president to resign from the Cabinet and withdraw support to the government. The members termed it a decision in favour of Dalits.
“Whatever decision we will take, we will take it in the interest of the party and the people of the State,”Mr. Suman said.
‘All options open’
Asked about alliance with the BJP, Mr. Suman said, “All the options are open in front of us but so far, we have not taken any decision on the alliance. However, we are going to Delhi on Monday night to explore options and in the next three to four days we will inform the media as well. We will be meeting top leaders of various political parties.”
Both the father and son are likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda in Delhi.
A day after Mr. Suman’s resignation, Mr. Kumar had accused Mr. Manjhi of playing the role of spy for the BJP. Mr. Kumar said had Mr. Manjhi attended the Opposition meet, he would have told everything to the BJP so he asked him to merge his party.
Asked about the allegation made by the Chief Minister, Mr. Manjhi said he would speak on this issue later.
Sources in the party said the mercurial Dalit leader has been offered a Governor’s position for himself, as well as a Lok Sabha ticket for his son by the BJP.
