Jitan Ram Manjhi demands Rajya Sabha seat for his party

Former Bihar Chief Minister and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday (December 21, 2025) alleged unfair treatment within the NDA and indicated that he might have to reconsider his options if his party, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), was not allotted a Rajya Sabha seat.

The former Chief Minister made the remarks in his Gayaji Lok Sabha constituency, where he addressed a function of his party and later responded to questions from journalists.

Mr. Manjhi, accompanied by his son Santosh Kumar Suman, a State Minister and HAM’s national president, spoke of the “treachery” he claimed to have faced within the alliance.

Speaking in the local dialect, Mr. Manjhi said, “We will have to chart our own path if we don’t get our due. My own ministerial berth is no big deal. I will survive politically even if I cease to be in the Union Cabinet.” Manjhi made it clear that his party, of which he is the lone MP, now wanted a berth in the Upper House as well.

However, when journalists approached him with more queries, Manjhi backtracked and said, “Please do not twist my words out of context. I can’t even decide for my party because I am not its office-bearer, but only its patron”.

The 80-year-old leader, who floated HAM in 2015, added that his comments were prompted by media reports suggesting that in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in April, the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) would claim two seats each, while one would go to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).

He said, “This leaves us with the question as to what harm is there in the Rajya Sabha elections. Ahead of the 2024 general elections, we were promised two LS seats and one RS seat. We got only one Lok Sabha seat, which we won for the NDA. The promise on the Rajya Sabha seat remains to be fulfilled, and that is what I wanted to highlight before our party workers.”