Nitish to lead JD (U) in assembly polls: Manjhi

PATNA: CM Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday said his predecessor Nitish Kumar was his leader and the party would contest assembly election only under his leadership. But, he seemed to have some reservation over the termination of the membership of four rebel JD (U) MLAs.
The CM’s statement came at a time when Nitish has come under criticism from the legislators of his own party in the wake of termination of the membership of four rebel MLAs as they blame the former CM for it.The Nitish-baiters, on the other hand, have been supporting Manjhi. Even the leaders of opposition parties, including Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, commented here on Saturday that Manjhi is a better CM than Nitish.
Manjhi said, “When the issue of leader of JD (U) will come up, I will be the first person to propose Nitish Kumar’s name. As far as the leader of the grand alliance is concerned, it will be decided by Nitish, JD (U) national president Sharad Yadav, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad as well as Congress president Sonia Gandhi.”
Reacting to his praise and criticism by opposition leaders, Manjhi said, “It is not my job to see who is praising me and who is criticizing me. My job is to work for development of the state without any discrimination.” However, the CM did not sound satisfied with the assembly Speaker’s decision to terminate the membership of four JD (U) MLAs and also strip them of the facilities they were supposed to avail as former MLA.
Manjhi said, “Their termination is the decision of the Speaker’s court and I am nobody to challenge it. I will say nothing on this order because this has been delivered after hearing and replies by the MLAs. They may go to court of law to challenge this. But they are MLAs of this term and they should only be stripped of the facilities of ex-MLA for this term alone, not for the previous terms. I have read only in newspapers and don’t know what the exact order is. I can’t believe the Speaker will do this.”