Manjhi pins blame on Bhagwat for Bihar debacle

Peeved over humiliating defeat in Bihar Assembly polls, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday said the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remark on reservation came at wrong time.

"We are yet to discuss the cause of defeat in the Bihar polls, but in a broader view we find that the extreme backwards, the backwards and the Muslim community have voted for the Grand Alliance. Mohan Bhagwat's comments on reservations were not wrong, but election was not the right time to make them," Manjhi told ANI.

"People got wrong impression from the message from such comments as Lalu ji and Nitish ji have an expertise in making a non-issue an issue," he added.

Manjhi also said that RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav met the people of the backward community and convinced them that if the NDA came to power they would be denied their reservation.

"Similarly the beef remark on who eats the cow meat and who doesn't, and statements like 'crackers will burst in Pakistan' were unnecessary and untimely," he added.

Many commentators and political analysts believe that the aggressive campaign rhetoric of the party as well as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent comments on reservation damaged the party's chances in Bihar.

Bhagwat said that the policy of reservation should be reviewed in an interview with the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser and Panchjanya.

"We believe, form a committee of people genuinely concerned in the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from the society, they should decide which categories require reservation and for how long," Bhagwat had said.

"The non-political committee like autonomous commissions should be the implementing authority; political authorities should supervise them for honesty and integrity," he also added.