If Grand Alliance disintegrates, blame it on Tejashwi: Manjhi

Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday launched a fresh attack on Lalu Prasad's younger son Tejashwi Yadav, blaming him for bringing the Grand Alliance on the verge of disintegration.

Manjhi also claimed that the RJD heir apparent was helping the NDA in the state.

A five-party formation headed by the RJD, the Grand Alliance includes Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) besides the Congress, former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP and Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahni's VIP.

The coalition has been in turmoil ahead of next month's by-polls to five assembly segments and one Lok Sabha constituency in the state.

"If the Grand Alliance finally disintegrates, it would be blamed on Tejashwi Yadav and no one else. The young leader is, wittingly or unwittingly, helping the NDA, defeating which has been the very motto of the coalition," Manjhi - who was in this north Bihar town for a membership drive - said.

"It is not that I made any unreasonable demands. All constituents were in support of my claim over Nathnagar assembly seat. But the RJD ditched us by allotting tickets for four seats, unilaterally, including Nathnagar," he alleged.

Although the RJD is yet to formally announce its candidates for the by-polls, there have been unconfirmed reports that it has distributed tickets for all but Kishanganj assembly and Samastipur Lok Sabha seats, leaving the two for the Congress.

The development has left allies fuming, with Sahni announcing that he would enter the fray from Simari Bakhtiyarpur and support Manjhi's candidate in Nathnagar.

He also asserted that "the coalition will survive even if the RJD ceases to be a part of it."