Gandhigiri, abuses: CM Manjhi gets desperate to pass Bihar test

"If today I don't do anything for my community, and if people from my community go to any minister for any work, that minister will abuse him and me also and say: saale, Manjhi was CM, why didn't he do anything for you?" Manjhi said.

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Jitan Ram Manjhi

Jitan Ram Manjhi

A desperate Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday left nothing to chance in a bid to win the crucial floor test in Bihar Assembly on Friday, asking his Mahadalit community to resort to Gandhigiri even as the expelled Janata Dal-United leader himself got abusive.

"If today I don't do anything for my community, and if people from my community go to any minister for any work, that minister will abuse him and me also and say: saale, Manjhi was CM, why didn't he do anything for you?" Manjhi told reporters in Patna.

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Asking his people to get to some Gandhigiri, made famous by Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munnabhai, Manjhi appealed, "I urge people to persuade their MLAs. Ask them what wrong I have done. Ask them if they want to become ministers, then I also have several vacant seats and I can also make them ministers. I urge people of my community to do Gandhigiri and ask their MLAs to vote for me."

Continuing his defiant note, the Bihar CM said, "I can be poor but not a cheat. This is just the trailer, the entire film remains. I have not completed even nine months as CM and they want to abort me."

Meanwhile, the Patna High Court barred eight rebel JD-U MLAs from voting in favour of Manjhi, who is scrambling for support ahead of the crucial Friday test. The Bihar BJP, which had to sever its 17-year-old alliance with the JD-U after a controversy over Narendra Modi's prime ministerial candidature in 2013, has decided to back Manjhi.

Earlier on Thursday, Bihar Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary appointed Vijay Chowdhary as the Leader of the Opposition, triggering a huge protest by the BJP legislators who accused the Speaker of partisanship.

A day before the floor test, Manjhi said he has sought support from the "lawmakers, not Janata Dal - United". Manjhi needs 117 votes to remain on his post. If the Bihar BJP backs him, he will get the support of the party's 87 MLAs. Manjhi has 12 JD-U MLAs in his camp.

The JD-U on Tuesday suspended seven ministers reportedly backing Manjhi whose former boss and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar, who has repeatedly accused the BJP of orchestrating the Bihar dissent.