Dalit leader, key Nitish Kumar aide Jitan Ram Manjhi named Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar had resigned two days ago taking moral responsibility for humiliating rout
Patna: Low-profile Bihar minister and Dalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi was on Monday named as the state’s new Chief Minister by beleaguered JD(U) stalwart and his predecessor Nitish Kumar who had resigned two days ago taking moral responsibility for the JD(U)’s humiliating rout in the just-concluded general elections in the state.
Mr Manjhi, 68, currently Bihar’s minister for SC and ST welfare, comes from the Musahar community, a sub-caste among the Dalits occupying the lowest place in the caste hierarchy and known for its widespread illiteracy and customary vocation of catching rats.
The Musahar community, classified among the Maha-dalits by Mr Kumar’s government in 2007, numbers about 40 lakh in Bihar.
Mr Kumar has been assiduously wooing the Maha-dalits, all dalit groups except the Dusadhs (Paswans), for the past several years for electoral gains.
The JD(U)’s legislature party unanimously re-elected Mr Kumar as leader of for the second consecutive day on Monday and urged him to resume work as CM, but he stuck to his decision to stay out of government to devote more time for the party’s revival.
Mr Kumar’s decision to step down is seen as yet another big political gamble by him after snapping ties with the BJP in June 2013. The JD(U) amply indicated that he would intensify his challenge to PM-elect Narendra Modi and seek to develop what the party’s state chief Vashistha Narayan Singh termed as a “countrywide ideological movement in that direction.”