NEW DELHI: Jitan Ram Manjhi was running from pillar to post for finances for his Lok Sabha campaign, fighting as a candidate of ruling JD(U) in Bihar. Somehow, despite being a minister, he could not lay his hands on party funds to fight what was evidently a tough battle.A year later, as the battle moves to the assembly turf, Manjhi has transformed from being a JD(U) loyalist to an independent player, sought after by all the camps of complex Bihar politics.Only days after RJD chief Lalu Prasad demanded that the Dalit leader be roped into the Janata Parivar alliance, BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday said his doors were open to him. JD(U), for all its protestations at Lalu's invite to its bête-noire, may not be averse to a fence-mending.Just what has driven Manjhi from the margins to the centrestage is a story that mirrors the importance of maha-dalit votes in Bihar, ironically now threatening to backfire at the author of maha-dalit politics -- Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.By all accounts, Manjhi has struck a chord with the marginalised sections of Dalits and is being seen as a magnet for the important voting bloc.For BJP, he would complement the broad alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP catering to strong Dalits and RLSP of the MBC community of Kushwahas.In contrast, Janata Parivar would also see him as benefitting an alliance of OBC satraps Lalu and Nitish as well as Congress.The problem for Janata Parivar could be that Manjhi's anger at Nitish is rooted in the humiliation over Lok Sabha funds at the hands of the CM's aides.A senior JD(U) leader said Manjhi is not a political novice or a Dalit ideologue but the ultimate picture of co-option that most representatives of the marginalized sections undergo. He was with Congress and then moved to RJD followed by JD(U) over his career spanning a few decades.Manjhi has been a minister of all these parties before becoming the chief minister in post-Lok Sabha sulk of Nitish Kumar. But post-rebellion, he has emerged a serious political figure being wooed by all and sundry.Amit Shah's Modi-anniversary acknowledgement that "BJP's doors are open" to Manjhi confirms his arrival.