Jitan Ram Manjhi Biography: Newly Elected MSME Minister in Modi 3.0, Know Age, Political Background, Education, and More

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Jitan Ram Manjhi Biography: After winning the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Narendra Modi took oath for his third term as the Prime Minister of India. The swearing in ceremony was held on Sunday, 9 June, 2024 at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Along with Pm Modi, 72 ministers also took oath for their new term in the coalition government, including 30 Cabinet Ministers, five Ministers of State with independent charge, and 36 Ministers of State. The 30 Cabinet Ministers include some new faces, while many have retained their positions for the second time. Rajnath Singh continues to be the Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as the Finance Minister, and Amit Shah as the Home Minsiter, among many others. Some new faces were elected as Union Ministers, including Chirag Paswan, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, among others. One of the newly elected Union Ministers is the former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Jitan Ram Manjhi has been given the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises. Let us know more about his education, political career, and more. 

Early Life & Education

Jitan Ram Manjhi was born on October 6, 1944 in Mahakar village, Khijarsarai area, Gaya district, Bihar. His father, Ramjit Ram Manjhi, and mother, Sukri Devi, were farmers. He was tutored by an upper caste teacher until the seventh grade, with the permission of his upper-caste landlord. After graduating from Magadh University, he spent 13 years working at the Gaya telephone exchange before his younger brother became a police officer. 

Initial Political Career

Manjhi joined the Indian National Congress Party in 1980. He contested and won the assembly election from the Fatehpur area in Gaya district. He was appointed as a minister for the first time in Bihar’s government led by Chandrashekhar Singh. 

Between 1980 and 1990, he served as a minister of state in cabinets led by Congress chief ministers Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, and Jagannath Mishra.

Entered in RJD 

He won the same seat in the 1985 election but lost in 1990. Following his defeat in the 1990 election, Manjhi switched to Janata Dal. He moved to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), founded by Lau Prasad Yadav after the Janata Dal split in 1996. Manjhi won the Barachatti seat in a 1996 by-election. In the subsequent election in 2000, he won the same seat on an RJD ticket.

Manjhi served as a minister in the RJD state government in Bihar from 1996 to 2005, both under Lalu Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, who assumed the position of Chief Minister after Lalu Yadav was convicted and imprisoned for the Fodder Scam.

Switched to Janta Dal (United)

After the RJD lost the 2005 elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) NDA coalition, Manjhi switched to the JDU and defeated Samta Deva in Barachatti. Things went against Manjhi when he was accused of being involved in a fake B.Ed. degree racket in Bihar while serving as state education minister in the RJD government in the 1990s. Manjhi was asked to resign immediately the next day after his involvement in a corruption scam was revealed.

As a junior minister in the Rabri Devi government, he was accused of illegally granting institutes permission to run bogus degree courses. He was later re-inducted into the state government cabinet by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2008 after being cleared of all charges.

In the 2010 Bihar elections, Manjhi was elected to the state legislative assembly from Makhdumpur in Jehanabad. After Nitish Kumar separated his Janata Dal (United) from the NDA to oppose coalition leader Bharatiya Janata Party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, Manjhi ran from Gaya but lost to Hari Manjhi (BJP) and Ramji Manjhi (RJD).

Following the JDU’s poor performance in the 2014 general election, Manjhi, Minister for SC and ST Welfare in Nitish’s Cabinet, succeeded him as Bihar’s 23rd Chief Minister. Due to the JDU’s split from the BJP-led NDA and the defection of some JDU MLAs, CM Manjhi's government was unstable and appeared unlikely to pass the trust vote in the state legislative assembly. However, Manjhi received outside support from Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party.

Joined BJP

After ten months, the party asked Manjhi to resign so that Nitish Kumar could return as Chief Minister. He refused and was expelled from the party in 2015, sparking a political crisis in the state. The BJP announced its support for Manjhi, but he lacked the numbers required to prove majority. As a result, Manjhi resigned as Chief Minister prior to voting. In 2015, after resigning as Chief Minister, Manjhi formed his own party, the Hindustan Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S), and joined the BJP-led NDA.

Jitan Ram Manjhi Family

Manjhi is married to Shanti Devi, and they have two sons and five daughters. One of his sons, Santosh Suman Manjhi, is an MLC. 

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