Nitish Kumar Chose Jitan Ram Manjhi to Safeguard his 'Kharao': Sushil Kumar Modi

Patna: The BJP on Monday described Jitan Ram Manjhi, handpicked by Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar, as a "kathputli" (puppet) and said the governor must ask the Janata Dal United to parade its MPs and prove that its new chief ministerial nominee has enough support.

"Jitan Ram Manjhi is a 'kathputli' Chief Minister of Nitish Kumar," former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told PTI.

"He is being used as Bharat of the epic Ramayana to safeguard the 'kharao' (pair wooden sandals) of Ram (Nitish Kumar)," he said.

Mr Modi said that earlier Mr Kumar had said that the Janata Dal(United) would go to the Assembly polls next year under his leadership and he will only become the Chief Minister if his party secures the mandate, which means that Mr Kumar has decided to use the Maha-dalit (a sub section among the Dalits) to safeguard his 'kharao' till then."

"This is an affront to the Mahadalit," he added.

Mr Modi said that though the choice of legislature party leader and the next Chief Minister was an internal matter of the JD(U), Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhary and senior minister Ramai Ram - the two senior most leaders hailing from the Dalit community - have been ignored.

He said the name of the new Chief Minister should have been ratified by the JD(U) MLAs before going to the Governor.

"Hence, we demand the Governor should insist on the parade of individual JD(U) MLAs to get convinced that Manjhi is the real choice of the party," the senior BJP leader said.