Patna: Hindustani Awam Morcha leader and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday sat on dharna outside the chamber of Assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary a day after being humiliated by incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. While speaking to reporters, Manjhi even claimed, "It looks like that as per a conspiracy someone is giving food with some poisonous substance in it to him (Nitish Kumar) to claim his (CM) seat. The result of it was the statement he made about women and the words he used against me yesterday."


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Manjhi is being backed by Bihar BJP leaders during the dharna. Some of the BJP legislators of BJP have also joined Jitan Ram Manjhi in his dharna outside the chamber of Speaker and many others were seen sitting in the portico of Bihar Assembly.


 



 


“The way CM Nitish Kumar humiliated former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi was extremely unfortunate. We want an apology from the chief minister. Humiliating a senior leader inside the temple of democracy is not acceptable. It was more shocking that the Speaker turned silent on this issue. He is a patron of the Bihar Assembly but he was taking the side of ruling parties,” said Tarkishore Prasad, BJP MLA and former deputy chief minister of Bihar.


“Every legislator is respectable and has equal rights in the Bihar Assembly and it is up to the Speaker to ensure the same is not violated. On Thursday, Jitan Ram Manjhi was making his point on government jobs for Scheduled Caste, but he was not allowed to talk inside. CM NItish Kumar not only interrupted him but also humiliated him which was extremely unfortunate,” Prasad said.


Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi and former CM of Bihar earlier slammed Nitish Kumar over his remark in the ongoing Assembly session after which the latter lost his cool and said that his "stupidity" had led his former protege Manjhi to occupy the highest seat of power in the state.


While speaking to the media on Thursday, Manjhi said that the Bihar CM had lost his mental balance and underestimated him. "...I wanted to get up and speak (in the Assembly) but the Chief Minister got up and started saying nonsense. I was surprised if this was the same Nitish Kumar who was there a few days back. It seemed that he was here today in a different form. I think he has some mental weaknesses which is why he is saying this...I think he has lost his mental balance so he is saying this...He had underestimated Jitan Ram Manjhi. He thought that I belonged to Bhuiya-Mushar community and I will do whatever he says..." he said.


 



 


Responding to his statement, Nitish Kumar, in a fit of rage said that it was his stupidity that that had led to Manjhi to be the CM of the state.


"..It was my mistake that I made this person CM...My party people started saying after two months that there was some problem, remove him... Then I became (CM)... He keeps on saying that he was CM... He became CM because of my stupidity," Kumar screamed during the discussion on the Reservation Amendment Bill, causing commotion in the House.


It came after Manjhi, who is now with the opposition BJP-led NDA, rose to express doubts over the state government's caste survey.


However, speaking about the same, Deputy CM of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav said that hurling allegations at each other is the nature of the politics.


"It is the nature of politics that people hurl allegations at each other. It was Nitish Kumar who made Jitan Ram Manjhi the CM of Bihar. On the other hand, BJP wants to divert the attention of people from the Bill that was passed in the Assembly today," Deputy CM said.