Patna,(BiharTimes): Leader of opposition in the state Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui’s statement that if Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit, can become the chief minister why can not a minority came as a surprise as till date he was silent on the issue of alliance or merger.

Not only that, he clarified that in this present age of BJP propaganda no member of the minority community would like to accept the seat of chief minister.

However, Janata Dal (United) sources suspect that Siddiqui has not said this on his own, but at the behest of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who not only wants to checkmate Ntish Kumar by his minority card, but also wishes to water down the impact of hisown party’s vice president, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

They are of the view that Raghuvansh had been raising some uncomfortable questions before Nitish, but in doing so he went a bit overboard. Lalu, who reportedly backed Raghuvansh initially, started feeling the heat later. The JD(U)-Congress bonhomie also alerted him a bit.

Lalu also played the Jitan Ram Manjhi card to check Nitish. At the same time he tried to play post-election politics. Not only Lalu wanted to wean Manjhi away from the BJP he also wanted to send the signal that in any post-election scenario an alliance with him can not be ruled out.

But Lalu’s card did not work much as Manjhi continued to drift towards the BJP.

When Lalu realized that Raghuvansh and Manjhi card went a bit overboard he played the minority card to cut Nitish to size. After all Nitish can not boast of any Muslim leader of Siddiqui’s stature. Lalu is also confident that in this present scenario Muslims are overwhelmingly behind him as Nitish has lost much of his credibility in the last one year.

Siddiqui took a swipe at BJP for creating such an atmosphere that no ‘secular’ party can think of making a Muslim as its CM candidate. And even if it makes one he would not accept it.

Mind it the man who made Muslim chief minister an issue sometimes back––Ram Vilas Paswan––is now with the BJP and is silent on the issue.

So this is not the first time that Muslim chief minister issue has come up before the Assembly election.