Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is set to become Bihar's Chief Minister, with his predecessor Nitish Kumar at the latter's residence on May 19
A little known Dalit leader from Bihar will now be leading the state government. Jitan Ram Manjhi, 68, was handpicked by
Nitish Kumar, who resigned from the chief minister's post on Saturday owning moral responsibility for his party, the Janata Dal (United)'s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, as his successor. (
Nitish Kumar Resigns a Day After Poll Debacle)
Mr Manjhi was the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes welfare minister in the Nitish Kumar government. He belongs to the Mushahar community, which is known to eat rats. (
Meet the New Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi)
Mushahars are the most backward sub-caste among the Dalits, and part of the Maha-Dalit grouping which has been sought to be empowered, and wooed, by Nitish Kumar during his over 9-year stint as the chief minister of Bihar.
Mr Manjhi, who won the 2010 assembly polls from Makhdumpur in south Bihar, has travelled a long way in his political career. He started his innings with the Congress by becoming a minister in the Chandrashekhar Singh government in 1980. He shifted his allegiance to Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, or the RJD, and was appointed as the minister of state for education under Mr Yadav in 1991, and it was during this period that he got embroiled in what is now called the B.Ed fake degree scam. (
Also Read: Arch rivals Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav agree on one thing)
Mr Manjhi and senior officials of the education department were accused of distributing some 40,000 fake degrees to students. Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, a close aide of the RJD chief who was Mr Manjhi's senior in the ministry, was one of the main accused in the scam. He has now been elected as a RJD MP from Banka.
In 1999, an FIR was registered by the state vigilance department against Mr Manjhi and other co-accused. He surrendered in the court, and was granted bail.
He joined the the JD(U) in early 2005, and was elected to the state assembly from the Barachatti (reserved) constituency in the elections held in November that year. Mr Nitish Kumar inducted him as a cabinet minister. But he was forced to resign within hours, after reports of his alleged involvement in the teachers' recruitment scam surfaced. (
Also Read: Nitish Kumar is Fond of Resigning: Sushil Kumar Modi)
Mr Manjhi was brought back into the state cabinet in 2008 after he was absolved of the charges by the courts.
He contested the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls from Gaya, but lost to the BJP's Hari Manjhi. He, in fact, suffered the ignominy of finishing third.