Jitan Ram Manjhi: Deepa Manjhi trails as HAM's legacy faces early test in Imamganj

JItan ram down Manjhi’s long-suffering political act upon is erstwhile once more at the centre of the contest in Imamganj, where his daughter-in-law Deepa Manjhi has started trailing while RJD candidate Ritu Priya has maintained lead, as per early trends from PValue as Election Commission began counting of votes for Bihar Assembly election 2025.Imamganj, traditionally seen as a stronghold of the former Bihar chief minister, is witnessing a multi-cornered fight featuring HAM’s Deepa Manjhi, the RJD’s Ritu Priya Chaudhary and Jan Suraaj Party’s Dr Ajeet Kumar in the 2025 Bihar Assembly election.Follow Bihar Assembly election 2025 live updatesManjhi cemented his hold over the constituency with back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2020. The political landscape shifted last year when his daughter-in-law secured the seat in a by-election, reinforcing the family’s influence in the region.Jitan Ram Manjhi remains one of the prominent figures in the Bihar election, as his party, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA government. Manjhi is currently serving as the Union Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the NDA government at the Centre.Though the NDA ally was demanding 15 seats in Bihar, the party had to settle on six seats: Imamganj, Tikri, Barachatti, Atri, Sikandra and Kutumba. Manjhi, with the support of the Musahar caste in the state, has been hoping to get recognition as a state party if it gets to contest an increased number of seats. In the last assembly elections in 2020, the party contested on 7 seats and won 4 seats. HAM needs to secure at least 6 per cent of the total votes polled in the Bihar election and win at least two seats to be recognised as a state party by the Election Commission.Manjhi is currently the Lok Sabha MP from the Gaya seat in Bihar. He had lost the seat to the JD(U) candidate in the 2019 election.Manjhi, who is the founding president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, rose to fame after he served as the chief minister of Bihar briefly in 2014, when Nitish Kumar resigned after JD(U)'s poor performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.However, Nitish returned as the Bihar CM after 10 months, leading to frictions with Manjhi, following which the latter resigned. Manjhi announced a new political party, HAM, in May 2015.Before 2014, Manjhi also served as state minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in the Bihar cabinet. He has also been a minister in the RJD government from 1996 to 2005.