Bypoll widens tug of war in NDA’s Dalit partners

Two major constituents and Dalit and Mahadalit oriented parties in the ruling National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) in Bihar — Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha ( Secular) — continue to be at loggerheads. A fresh flashpoint is HAM (S) founder and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi giving ticket to his daughter-in-law Dipa Manjhi from Imamganj seat which has irked LJP, and its MP Arun Bharti has slammed senior Manjhi for this bypoll choice.
In a post on his official X handle, Arun Bharti, Jamui MP and chief whip of LJP(RV) in Lok Sabha, has said that “Manjhi ji supporting sub-classification within the Dalit quota should implement it here first” along with a picture where the veteran Dalit leader is seen giving ticket to his daughter-in-law. The post was issued on October 20, the day HAM (S) chief announced the candidature of his bahu from the Imamganj assembly seat.
The cryptic post was seen as a deliberate comment by Bharti, who is also husband of LJP (RV) chief and Union minister Chirag Paswan’s sister, that someone from his caste, Pasi, should have been given ticket instead of a Manjhi. Bharti seems to be insisting on this because of Manjhi has taken a committed stand of supporting the Supreme Court verdict in August on allowing states to sub-classify within the scheduled castes for granting reservations. And so, such reservation should apply in distribution of election tickets, is a seeming stance of Bharti.
The LJV(RV) though has a different position and it has been strongly opposing the sub-classification of SCs and maintains that any such move would weaken the reservation for SCs. It also believes that the quota to Dalits was not given for uplift in economic standards but also to mitigate social ills like untouchability. The LJV( RV) leaders, especially Bharti, has been vocal against HAM(S) founder Manjhi for supporting the apex court judgement.
Both LJV(RV) and HAM(S), are allies in the NDA, and have five and one MP respectively. Chirag and Manjhi are both union ministers in the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the centre.
On October 9, HAM(S) founder Manjhi had stirred a controversy when he described Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party chief and estranged uncle of Chirag Paswan, Pashupati Kumar Paras, as the true heir of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan after attending an event organised by Paras in New Delhi to mark the death anniversary of the late former Union minister and prominent Dalit leader.
Manjhi’s comments elicited strong reactions from LJV(RV) and Bharti advised Manjhi to desist from making such sweeping remarks and that Chrag was the original heir of Ram Vilas’ legacy.
The growing animosity between LJP(RV) and HAM(S), poll observers feel, may lead to depletion of NDA’s Dalit votes. Both the parties and their leadership are in race to lead Dalits of the state and are wooing them in ways that are often resulting in clash between them.
“Both Manjhi and Chirag are looking at the larger Dalit vote base to strengthen their own outfits and the animosity between the duo is reflection of competitive politics within the regional outfits, which have a formidable SC vote base. But this is good in terms of state poltics as it shows variance in views,”said Rakesh Tiwary, a Patna-based poll observer and economist.
Meanwhile, LJV(RV) and HAM(S) leaders maintain that there is no disunity in the NDA and the recent exchange of barbs between senior leaders of the two parties were only a trivial matter. “LJV(RV) leader Arun Bharti is like our jijaji ( brother-in-law) and his comments about ticket distribution in Imamganj should be taken lightly. There is no disunity in the NDA,” said Shyam Sundar Sharan, spokesperson of HAM(S). Ashraf Ansari , state vice president of LJV(RV), also said that there was no disunity in the NDA and both HAM(S) and his party were allies in the ruling coalition.