The Union Minister and BJP ally from Bihar, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose video has gone viral in which he is allegedly heard claiming to have ensured the victory of one of his party candidates in the 2020 Assembly polls despite the candidate trailing, has strengthened the Opposition’s allegations of vote theft, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal demanding a high-level probe into the matter.
The video, said to have been recorded at a function held on December 14 to felicitate party workers following HAM (S)’s performance in the 2025 Assembly polls, purportedly shows Manjhi referring to the Tekari constituency, where HAM (S) candidate Anil Kumar had been trailing by around 2,600 votes in the 2020 polls before eventually winning, according to The Indian Express.
The video further shows the minister claiming that the same candidate lost the 2025 election due to the absence of a similar intervention, while also naming an IAS officer, now posted in Tripura, who allegedly helped secure the party’s victory in 2020.
Despite Manjhi’s denial, the ruling NDA, with Bihar Industry Minister and former BJP state president Dilip Jaiswal, came out in his defence, with Jaiswal stating that he had seen the entire video and asserting that the surfaced clip was only a cut portion, while the full recording indicated that Manjhi was referring to delays in counting during the 2020 polls and not to any manipulation.
The Opposition seized upon the video to reinforce its claims of electoral manipulation, with Bihar Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari stating that the remarks indicated blatant misuse of the bureaucracy to influence election outcomes and confirming that the party was considering approaching the Election Commission of India, while RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta called for a comprehensive and high-level investigation into both the alleged role of the Union Minister and the conduct of the named IAS officer.
Meanwhile, JD (U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said that the HAM (S) state leadership should respond to the allegations, even as he cautioned the Opposition against making sweeping claims without formal complaints or institutional scrutiny.