Patna: HAM chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, along with his party legislators, met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday evening and discussed various issues including the seat-sharing formula for next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Manjhi had earlier demanded five seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2024.
The leaders of HAM stayed at CM’s residence at 1 Anne Marg for an hour. A joint photograph of the meeting also surfaced.
“We have met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for various issues including our demand for 5 seats. The details of the discussion would not be revealed at this point. It will be shared when time comes,” Manjhi’s son and state SC/ST Minister Santosh Kumar Suman said.
“The meeting happened with a positive direction. We had not gone there to talk about seats but discussion has happened on this point apart from other political and general issues of our constituencies,” he added.
Sources have said that Manjhi is not pleased with his party’s position in Mahagathbandhan. Hence, he had also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the past as well. Though, he has time and again shown loyalty in public for Nitish Kumar.
Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha in Bihar has 4 MLAs and one MLC – his son Suman.
Sources had said that Manjhi is demanding 5 seats publicly but his discussion with CM Nitish Kumar and Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary had happened over three seats. JD-U, on the other hand, does not want to concede more than 1 seat or a maximum of 2 seats.
–IANS