New Delhi: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has decided to keep its option open of supporting Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in the trust vote that he will seek on February 20.
According to BJP sources, the party might abstain from the voting necessitated by Nitish Kumar's decision to remove Manjhi's nominee as chief minister.
The party is expected to take the final call within next two days.
As a matter of fact, the choices with the party is to either side with Manjhi and send a message to dalits in the state or oppose him to lessen the anxiety of its core upper caste support.
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Manjhi became a chief minister because of Kumar's resignation from the post as a consequence of his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. Since then Manjhi has projected himself as a leader of dalits in his own right.
Protests, which broke out in several district headquarters and 'welfare hostels' (meant for SC students), attest to the success of his enterprise in promoting dalit officers in the bureaucracy.
This has taken his appeal beyond his own caste Musahar also and has successfully generated sympathy for him among Dalits who account for a big chunk of electorate.
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Infact, as per the media reports, it is said that Kumar's political generosity for Manjhi was also driven by a desire to carve a political constituency for himself among dalits.
Now, on one hand BJP is lured by the large dalit support also which is required in the forthcoming Assembly elections slated for later this year but on the other hand, it will have to deal with Manjhi's aggressive dalit politics also which has caused uneasiness in a section of upper caste saffron constituency.
BJP sources said the party leadership has to tread cautiously as a single political misstep can cause reverse injury at a crucial time.
