Bihar polls: Jitan Ram Manjhi seeks 15 seats, hints at compromise with NDA

Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday suggested that he would have preferred his four-MLA strong Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) to contest in half of Bihar's 243 Assembly segments, but expressed his willingness to 'settle for' 15 seats to avoid conflict with NDA allies.

The former Bihar chief minister shared his stance in a post on his X handle, quoting a famous passage from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's war poem Rashmirathi, which depicts Lord Krishna’s attempt to broker peace with Duryodhana, ultimately leading to the battle of Kurukshetra.

“Ho nyay agar toh aadha do (give us half if you wish to do justice),” Manjhi wrote, apparently addressing the BJP. This came three days after senior BJP leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Vinod Tawde visited his residence to discuss seat-sharing arrangements.

Manjhi continued, “Par usme bhi yadi badha ho, to de do keval 15 gram, rakho apni dharti tamam (but if even that proves difficult, give us 15 villages [a metaphor for seats] and keep the rest of your land).”

He concluded, "HAM (the party's acronym, a pun on ‘we’) khushi se khaayenge, parijan pe asi na uthayenge (we will remain content and not take up arms against our kin)."

The former chief minister has long been advocating for at least 15 seats for HAM, citing that his party must secure a minimum of eight seats to gain 'recognised' status from the Election Commission — a status it has yet to achieve, despite a decade of existence.

The BJP-led NDA in Bihar includes Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which Manjhi split from in 2015 to form HAM. The alliance also consists of Union minister Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha.

With inputs from PTI