Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 6 October 1944) is an Indian politician, serving as the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises since 2024.[3] He is currently a Member of Parliament from Gaya constituency and was Bihar's 23rd Chief Minister from 20 May 2014 to 20 February 2015. He was the founding President of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).[4] Previously, he had served as minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in Nitish Kumar's cabinet. He has been a minister in several Bihar state governments, under multiple chief ministers like Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Jagannath Mishra, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi.
Manjhi has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly since 1980. He was affiliated with several political parties, Indian National Congress (1980–1990), Janata Dal (1990–1996), Rashtriya Janata Dal (1996–2005) and JD(U) (2005–2015).[5] He was expelled from JD(U) following the February 2015 political crisis and subsequently Jitan Ram Manjhi emerged as a major Dalit face in Bihar.[6] In May 2015, he announced the new political party, Hindustani Awam Morcha. In July 2015, Jitan Ram Sharma was accorded "Z"-plus security cover by the Union Home Ministry.[7][8][9]
Currently, he is the oldest minister in the third term of NDA government after the winning of 2024 Lok Sabha election