New Delhi: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday levelled serious allegations against Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi of passing on information to the BJP. Manjhi’s son, Santosh Suman, recently quit the Nitish cabinet and their party moved out of the Grand Alliance.

“I had asked Manjhi to either merge his party with us or leave the Grand Alliance. Had we been together, he could have passed on information to the BJP,” Kumar told media persons in Patna, after the oath-taking ceremony of JDU MLA Ratnesh Sada as the new cabinet minister replacing Santosh Suman.

Sada is also from the Mushar community, which JItna Manjhi belongs to.

“There is going to be a meeting of all the opposition parties in Patna. Manjhi wanted to attend that meeting. He could have passed on the deliberations made by all the parties to the BJP,” Kumar said. “I had told him no one can give him the respect which has been given by the JDU.”

Manjhi was made chief minister by Nitish Kumar in 2014. Later, he resigned and had formed his own party and contested the 2015 assembly election in alliance with the BJP. In 2019, he contested the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Grand Alliance. In the 2020 assembly election, Manjhi was back in NDA which he left along with Nitish Kumar in August last year.

Mountain man Dashrath Manjhi’s son, son-in-law join JDUAfter giving cabinet berth to Mahadalit leader Ratnesh Sada, Kumar inducted mountain man Dashrath Manjhi’s son and son in-law into JDU.Dashrath Manjhi, a native of Gehlaur village in Wazirganj block in Gaya district had cut a big mountain to make a road between his village and Wazirganj in 22 years through a hammer and a chisel. He has a great image among Manjhi community.