Has Bihar found a new alternative to Nitish & Lalu in Jitan Ram Manjhi?

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad said on Friday that Jitan Ram Manjhi, who resigned as the chief minister of Bihar ahead of the floor test scheduled for the day, had ruined his future by involving himself with the BJP.

Manjh's immediate predecessor Nitish Kumar, who had hand-picked the former as his successor immediately after the Lok Sabha poll debacle last year, apologised to the people of Bihar over his mistake of quitting as the chief minister.

Both these leaders, who have been the biggest Bihar has seen since in the post-Congress era, are completely wrong in their assessment. The funniest part is that in a zest to beat Narendra Modi, these two leaders, particularly Nitish Kumar, have ended up giving birth to an alternative to all exhausted forces in the state and he is none other than Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Nitish Kumar's two massive blunders in 2013 and 2014

Nitish Kumar committed a massive blunder in May 2014 when he chose Manjhi as his successor. It was no less an error than the one in 2013 when the JD(U) leader decided to end his party's alliance with the BJP after the rise of Modi in the quarters. Through both these suicidal moves, Nitish Kumar allowed his own vote-banks to sink. And in both cases, the BJP has been the biggest beneficiary.

Is Jitan Ram Manjhi Bihar's new Sub-altern Sahib?

Manjhi, irrespective of his resignation on Friday, is going to leave an impact on the upcoming Bihar assembly election. In fact, Bihar might have just found a new-generation Sub-altern Sahib in Manjhi and the future political equations in the state will see a fresh churning in the days to come.

The risky venture will boomerang?

For Nitish Kumar, the future doesn't look promising for his risky venture of empowering a Mahadalit and then sidelining him for his own political interest is a complete recipe for a disaster. The strategy of apologising to reach out to the electorate's sentiment on lines of Arvind Kejriwal will be of little use for Nitish Kumar's politics of opportunism is known to all and sundry. He can not really take the voters for a ride this time.

It will be interesting to see if Nitish can really survive the Manjhi error

On the other hand, Lalu Prasad is certainly not the man of the future in Bihar politics. If the age and circumstances are against him, he has made things worse by allying with Nitish Kumar, the August 2014 bypoll results notwithstanding.

Megalomaniac Nitish might have lost control of his state's politics

Nitish Kumar perhaps had thought that his words were final in Bihar politics. But in effect, the megalomaniac in him has opened up a Pandorra's Box in a politically complex state like Bihar. Even leaders like Mohammad Sahgabuddin and Pappu Yadav are sensing an opportunity in the me-lee to put an end to Nitish Kumar's run in the state forever.

Even Brahmins are not sitting idle

Even old guards like Jagannath Mishra are not sitting quiet. Reports have said that the former chief minister of Bihar and a Congressman has backed Manjhi and advised him to do something better for the Dalits in the state. He said Nitish Kumar had run away from doing something good for the Dalits and that he thinks Manjhi is the right man to do the job.

Mishra, who is no more in active politics now, also indicated at a possible alliance between the upper classes and the Dalits. And if that happens indeed, the BJP is certainly going to benefit the most, thanks to the Congress's sorry state of affairs.