New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here with the two discuss the political situation in the state where an overwhelming majority of ruling JD(U) MLAs on Saturday chose Nitish Kumar as their party leader.
At the meeting, Manjhi and Modi could explore possibilities in this regard, they added.
Manjhi is here to attend the NITI Aayog meet where Modi will seek views of chief ministers on the budgetary allocation for the states and various central projects even though JD(U) has disapproved of his bid to take part in the exercise, saying his position as chief minister was no longer tenable.
The lack of support for the Mahadalit leader within his own party is also dissuading BJP from coming out openly to back Manjhi as it believes that numbers in the Bihar Assembly clearly favour Kumar.
Manjhi, on the other hand, is also exploring the possibility of a fresh election in the state — a demand also made by senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi — if the Bihar Governor Kesrinath Tripathi agrees to his Cabinet proposal to dissolve the Assembly.
Only seven members of the Manjhi Cabinet had supported the proposal at their meeting yesterday while 21 others had opposed it.
Later, 97 of JD(U)’s 111 MLAs met to replace Manjhi with Kumar as their new leader, underlining the lack of support for the chief minister within his own party.
