Manjhi claims he is most popular NDA campaigner

Calling himself the "most popular campaigner" among the BJP s allies in Bihar polls, <g data-gr-id="12">mahadalit</g> leader Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday asserted his party's strike rate will be better than all other NDA constituents.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance should have given him more seats as people "everywhere want to see me".

With the polls being seen a close contest between the NDA and the grand alliance of JD(U)-RJD-Congress, Manjhi said his party would have won over 35 seats if it was given 40 to contest and only time will tell if the BJP-led coalition would regret the decision of allotting his Hindustani <g data-gr-id="13">Awam</g> Morcha (Secular) only 21 seats.

Manjhi claimed such is his popularity among the poor that Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan, another prominent <g data-gr-id="16">dalit</g> leader of Bihar, whose clout among the crucial Scheduled Castes voters he had questioned some time back, had to "request" him to address an election meeting by telephone in Alauli, where his brother and state LJP chief Pashupati Paras is in the fray.