The poll bugle has been sounded in Bihar and the contest seems to have heated up. Former Bihar Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday extended support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Manjhi met BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi and made the announcement that his party will contest Bihar Assembly elections with NDA.
“The people of Bihar will never allow this alliance (Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal partnership) to form a government in Bihar. On June 16 our party leaders are meeting and Hindustani Awam Morcha will decide that how will we help BJP. It is clear that we will have to fight with full force to keep Lalu and Nitish alliance away,” Manjhi stated after his meeting with Shah.
Union Minister Dhamerndra Pradhan, BJP General Secretary in-charge of Bihar Bhupendra Yadav and BJP Joint General Secretary (Organisation) Saudan Singh were also present at the meeting. Reports also suggest that, the final decision pertaining to Manjhi’s induction into the party wil be taken after a meeting with Bihar BJP leaders.
On the other hand, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has already declared that Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the JD(U)-RJD combine in Bihar. The decision comes at a time when there were uncertainties cropping up within the alliance and there seemed to be no headway or strategy as per as the plans regarding taking BJP in the Bihar elections were concerned.