New Delhi [India], November 17 : Union Minister and Hindustan Awami Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday said there was "kanjoosi" (miserliness) within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to give more seats to his party in the Bihar Assembly polls but he did not protest as he was "disciplined within the alliance."
He said that his demand for more seats is linked to him trying to get the status of "recognised political party" from the Election Commission of India (ECI), without the status, he says he has to "face humiliation at many places."
"Our party has been in existence for 10 years, but we are yet to become a recognised party; we're a registered party, and due to this, we have to face humiliation at many places," Union Minister Manjhi told reporters here.
Talking about the benefits his party loses out on due to not getting the recognition, he added, "Election Commission calls multiple parties for meetings, so we are not called because only recognised parties are called. Then the voter lists which were distributed during elections, everyone else got it for free, but we did not."
According to him, because of these reasons, he had called for contesting more than the six assigned seats, which could have in turn satisfied the minimum vote percentage requirement.
"Regarding vote percentage (within alliance) most of the vote percent (in alliance) is with BJP, and after that it is with me. The people want us, but they were miserly while giving seats, and we did not protest then as we are a disciplined party," he said.
The Election Commission of India has different types of recognitions and registrations of various political parties based on how the party performs in the assembly or national elections. The ECI registers parties as either "state parties" or "national parties," with the third categorisation being "registered unrecognised political parties."
To be a recognised political party, a particular party has to fulfil any of the following conditions: 1. securing not less than 6% of the valid votes polled in the state during assembly elections, in addition to the party having atleast two MLAs return to the assembly of that state; 2. Securing not less than 6% of total valid votes polled during Lok Sabha elections in addition to returning atleast 1 member to the Lok Sabha from that state. 3. The party winning atleast 3% of the total number of seats in the assembly, or atleast 3 seats, whichever is more. 4. In the last election, the party has returned atleast 1 member per 25 seats or any fraction thereof allotted to the state; 5. The candidates set up by the paty have secured nor less than 8% of the total valid votes polled.
HAM(S) currently is an unrecognised political party. Being part of the NDA, the party contested 6 seats and won 5 of them. The party got 4,91,564 total votes out of approximately 4.9 crore votes cast, bringing their vote share to only approximately 1%. In 2020 too, after they contested 7 seats and won 4, the party only had a vote share of only 0.89%.
Regarding the government formation and swearing-in ceremony in Bihar, while Manjhi said that swearing-in ceremony will happen on November 20, he said that he only has public information on the portfolio allocation. He said that he has read in media that out of the 35-26 ministers in the likely Nitish Kumar-led cabinet, 16 are from BJP, 14-15 from JDU, 3 from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and 1-1 from Hindustan Awam Morcha (S) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
The ruling NDA got 202 seats, a three-fourths majority in the 243-member House. This is the second time the NDA has crossed the 200-mark in the assembly polls. In the 2010 polls, it had won 206 seats.