Why is there chaos in Manipur JDU, is everything not well in Bihar NDA?
#News Bureau January 23,2025
Is everything not going well in NDA? In Bihar, ministers from NDA’s allies are sometimes threatening to resign and sometimes announcing separation from NDA in some state. However, confusion has arisen in both these cases. The latest case is of JDU. In Manipur, JDU’s state president wrote a letter to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla saying that the party does not support the BJP-led NDA government in the state. But after a while, the party high command said that JDU is a part of NDA and the state president who wrote the letter has been removed. Earlier, a similar confusion had arisen regarding Jitan Ram Manjhi’s cabinet post. So the question is, is everything not going well in NDA?
Before finding the answer to this question, let us know what exactly are these developments and under what circumstances all this is happening. Actually, assembly elections are to be held in Bihar this year. Such news is coming in bit by bit that the constituent parties in NDA are pushing for maximum seats. JDU and BJP are trying to get more seats, Chirag Paswan’s party and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party are also trying the same.
This matter of JDU in Manipur also created a ruckus in Bihar politics. Actually what happened was that JDU state president Kshetramayum Biren Singh wrote a letter to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla saying that the party does not support the BJP-led NDA government in the state. When there was a ruckus over this, JDU sacked Kshetramayum Biren Singh. Indiscipline was cited as the reason for his expulsion and it was said that his alliance with BJP remains at both the state and national levels.
JDU national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad termed the letter as misleading and said that the state unit did not communicate with the central leadership and worked independently. Prasad said, ‘The party has taken cognizance of this and the president of the party’s Manipur unit has been relieved from his post. We have supported the NDA and our support to the NDA government in Manipur will continue in the future as well. The Manipur unit did not communicate with the central leadership, they were not taken into confidence. They wrote the letter themselves.’
Opposition parties in Bihar have made this incident in Manipur an issue. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinet said, ‘Nitish Kumar’s JDU has withdrawn support from BJP in Manipur. Earlier, Sangma’s party had also done the same. Narendra Modi has committed the sin of leaving a burning state on its own.’
Pratik Patel, associated with RJD, has said, ‘I think this is just pressure politics done regarding seat sharing in Bihar. Nitish Kumar is an expert player of pressure politics. BJP will get a shock when he separates himself from NDA, but I do not think Nitish ji has this power left now. Apart from this, this decision of Manipur is surprising. Because the reason for this has been in the past for a long time.’
So the question is, is this a game of seat sharing? However, Bihar BJP President Dilip Jaiswal also recently said that the seat sharing formula in NDA has been decided, but there has been no formal announcement of this.
In media reports, quoting sources, it was said that like 2020, this time too BJP and JDU will contest elections on equal number of seats. They will adjust LJP, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha’s party from their respective shares. But there were reports that Jitan Ram Manjhi is angry with the seat sharing.
Is Manjhi also angry with the NDA, why the uproar?
There is an uproar in Bihar politics over a statement by Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Earlier there was news that Manjhi is angry with the NDA and has threatened to leave his post in the cabinet. It was said that the reason for his anger is to create an atmosphere to get more seats in the Bihar assembly elections. In the 2020 assembly elections, Manjhi’s party was given 7 out of 243 seats by the NDA and he won 4. According to the Economic Times report, he had earlier alleged that his Hindustani Awam Morcha is not getting a fair deal in the NDA ahead of the Bihar assembly elections to be held later this year. He made this statement at a public meeting in Munger district on Tuesday.

When the matter escalated, Manjhi dismissed such speculations and showing solidarity with the NDA, clearly said that he will not leave Prime Minister Modi till his death. Manjhi told Aaj Tak that ‘Our workers want us to get 40 seats in Bihar. We also say that after getting 40 seats, if we win 20 seats, then we will solve many problems in Bihar.’
Jitan Ram Manjhi also answered the question about leaving the cabinet. He said that ‘We were repeatedly telling our people that we have a flight and there is a cabinet meeting the next day. If you delay too much, we will leave the cabinet. We said this in the context of the cabinet meeting, not about leaving the cabinet.’
No matter how much clarification Jitan Ram Manjhi gives, but the direct message of his statement is that everything is not right regarding seat sharing. Some people are also linking the JDU incident in Manipur to the politics of pressure for seat sharing in Bihar.