Jitan Ram Manjhi tests positive for COVID-19; HAM meet put off

Patna, Dec 14: Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has tested positive for COVID-19 following which Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) national executive meeting has been put off.

According to a statement issued by HAM on Monday, its septuagenarian founding president was convalescing after testing positive for the coronavirus. The party office, which has been set up by the Strand Road bungalow allotted to Manjhi in his capacity as an ex-CM, has also been shut down for a week, the statement said.

The partys national executive meeting, scheduled for December 18, has therefore been deferred. Manjhi had formed the party in 2015, after stepping down as Chief Minister and quitting the JD(U). He returned to the NDA ahead of the recent assembly polls, burying his differences with former mentor Nitish Kumar. His son Santosh Kumar Suman is a member of the newly- formed state cabinet headed by the JD(U) chief.

The mercurial leader had on Sunday raised the hackles of the NDA by threatening to launch an agitation if the government did not implement measures envisioned by him for employment generation and reservations during his brief tenure as Chief Minister.

Congress legislature party leader Ajit Sharma, however, questioned Manjhis stance and said "what is he doing in a coalition which is paying no heed to his concerns? If he is serious, let him come out of the NDA and we will join him in his stir for job creation".