Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) leader and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi sought Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation on Friday and announced that he will meet President Draupadi Murmu and Union home minister Amit Shah to demand the dismissal of the chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.
He also alleged that Nitish was being drugged or given poison-laced food by some vested interests, who wanted to remove him from the chief minister’s position and install someone else.
“Nitish has lost it. He spoke angrily. I am 80 years old, he is 74. I became an MLA for the first time in 1980 and he in 1985. He should not have talked to me in an insulting language and manner. Someone is poisoning his food, which is why he is speaking in such a way and unexpectedly. His culture is gone,” Manjhi told media persons while staging a dharna (sit-in protest) on the Assembly premises.
“I will visit Delhi after the Chhath festival to meet the President of India and Union home minister and apprise them of the situation. I will demand the dismissal of the Nitish government,” Manjhi added.
Nitish, in a tirade in the Assembly, had attacked Manjhi in a language that was deemed derogatory and insulting.
The BJP demonstrated in the House and portrayed the issue as the insult of a Dalit leader. Its MLAs rushed to the well and created such a ruckus that Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary was forced to adjourn the proceedings till post-lunch.
