Patna: Former Bihar chief minister and chief of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) Jitan Ram Manjhi will contest the upcoming state assembly polls, his party announced on Tuesday.
“Manjhi will contest upcoming assembly polls. The party will decide about his seat,” HAM’s state president Shakuni Choudhary announced here.
Choudhary said HAM’s core committee in its meet decided that Manjhi should contest the upcoming assembly polls.
The announcement holds significance as only two days ago, Manjhi, who launched HAM after being expelled from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) for not stepping down as chief minister, said he would neither contest Rajya Sabha polls nor was keen to become a union minister ahead of upcoming state assembly polls.
Choudhary also said that Manjhi would vacate 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of chief minister, on June 20 and would shift to his old official bungalow nearby.
HAM has already announced that it would only join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance to contest the upcoming polls.
Manjhi has said he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post and only a BJP leader would be the candidate.
HAM leaders close to Manjhi said he has staked claim to 70 seats in the 152-seat assembly from the BJP but the latter is not ready for this.