Ramayan Manjhi was a former two-time legislative assembly member of BJP legislature of Darauli, a reserved Scheduled Caste (SC)s seat in Siwan district of the Indian state of Bihar. A leader who is quite modest and approachable, Manjhi was instrumental in the emergence of BJP in northern Bihar in the early part of 2000. His rise, which never achieved eminence at a national level, represented the on-the-ground changes in Bihar politics, which is intensely caste and electorate based.
Political Emergence of the Margins
Manjhi was elected into the Assembly in 2005 as a Bihar Assembly winner although he won the 2005 elections for Darauli and has maintained the position in 2010 elections. During the period in which the BJP was trying to increase its constituency among the non-upper caste groups, Manjhi proved to be an important Dalit mouthpiece. His success allowed BJP to promote its reputation in the SC-reserved seats.
Manjhi was seen as a hands-on leader who would go out of way to speak to the voters, particularly those in the margins, with his attention centered on local problems such as roads, electricity and welfare schemes.
Left-Wing Deliveries and Obstacle to Elections
Manjhi relinquished the seat in 2015 to Satyadeo Ram of the CPI(ML) and this defeat was again a revival of sorts of the Left politics in Siwan. In 2020, his second attempt to run failed as he was defeated by the same candidate, but by more than 12,000 votes.
The losses represented a shift in political climate in Darauli as there were increasing voter support in favor of candidates connected with grassroots movements and the labor agenda as it was an area that the Left captured again.
Tragic Personal and Passing
Ramayan Manjhi died a couple of years after he left office after he had gone into treatment in a privately owned hospital after suffering a heart attack. His defeat was intensely experienced in his constituency and the BJP circles.
Before this incident in 2022, in 2020, he had experienced a personal loss, as his younger son, Rakesh Manjhi, passed away during treatment with the family in Iraq, shocking them.
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