Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 6 October 1944) is an Indian politician, serving as the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises since 2024.

[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.

[11][12][13] His father Ramjit Ram Manjhi and mother Sukri Devi were farm labourers belonging to the Musahar community.

[15] On the ticket of the Indian National Congress party, he contested and won the assembly elections from the Fatehpur segment in Gaya district.

[12] When Yadav's RJD lost the October 2005 elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) NDA coalition, Manjhi switched loyalties to the JDU.

[17] As a junior minister in the Rabri Devi government, he was alleged to have given illegal permissions to institutes to run fake degree courses.

[24] Manjhi was once considered as a close confidant of Bihar present CM and JDU supremo Nitish Kumar, but is not known for his administrative skills.

[11][27] Manjhi's promotion, despite his loss in the general elections to the Lok Sabha and a miserable third-place finish in Gaya, has been criticized in the media for being a cynical political ploy of Kumar deliberately choosing a puppet whom he could control as well as to rouse casteist emotions.

However, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD and Sonia Gandhi's Congress party provided outside support to Manjhi because he belongs to a backward caste.

[2] In 2015, after resigning from the post of Chief Minister, Manjhi split and set up his own party, the Hindustan Awam Morcha-Secular(HAM-S) and joined BJP led NDA.

[34] During a speech in a meeting of Bihar State Foodgrain Businessmen's Association, Manjhi commented that his government is ready to forgive allegations against small-scale traders that indulge in black marketing and hoarding of food grains.

[35] He defended their action by adding that small-scale hoarding by these traders as a means to provide sustenance to their families and education to their children, both of which, in his view, were "noble causes."