Manoj Manzil

Manoj Manzil is an Indian politician from Bihar. He represented the CPIML Liberation in Tejashwi Yadav's Mahagathbandhan alliance during the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly Election.^[1][2] Manzil has concentrated his political activity in Agiaon and has been organizing the Sadak Par School Movement in Bhojpur.^[3][1] He received 84,777 votes, 61.51% of total vote share, and was elected as the MLA from Agiaon in 2020.^[4]

Manoj Manzil
Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 November 2020 - 18 February 2024
Preceded by	Prabhunath Prasad
Constituency	Agiaon
National President of RYA
Incumbent
Assumed office 2018
Personal details
Born	Manoj Kumar c. 1984 (age 40–41) Tarari, Bihar, India
Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Liberation)
Residence(s)	Tarari, Bihar

History

Manzil was born in 1984 or 1985 to a family of landless Dalit labourers and brick kiln workers. His father was a cadre of the CPI(ML) and his uncle spent his life as part of the Jay Prakash movement.

He managed to get into college in Arrah and taught students to make ends meet but was forced to drop out several times. He eventually became a Left activist. In 2015, he contested the elections from Agiaon as a CPI(ML)-L candidate but was jailed and came in third place.^[5]

In 2018, he organized the Sadak Par School movement in Bhojpur district, where he and other cadres would teach students on the road to protest abysmal primary schooling in rural Bihar. The movement gained significant media attention and in response the government made several school reforms.^[6] In 2020, he contested the elections again and won a majority.^[5]

Conviction

Manoj Manzil along with 22 others were sentenced to life imprisonment in a case relating to the murder of JP Singh during the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election.^[7]