Patna,(BiharTimes): A day after the BJP victory in Maharashtra and Haryana former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday led a state-wide sit-in (dharna) at JP roundabout in Patna apparently to demand the special category status to Bihar, but in reality with a different political objective.
Addressing the party-workers he reiterated that he snapped ties with the BJP because he did not want to compromise his principle.
“I am not bothered about the results. I would stick to my stand. Why should I run the government through remote? There was no problem for me to run directly? Why should I abandon it? I donot believe in ruling through the help of remote control,” he said while countering the allegations of the BJP leaders.
Referring to the opposition by the BJP leaders he said that all of them who are flaying him now for raising this demand supported this cause when the state Assembly passed the resolution in this regard. They were in fact in power with the JD(U), the former chief minister said.
Perhaps for the first time in the last so many months he took the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to state that during the Lok Sabha election campaign in Bihar he not only promised special status, but also talked about special package as well as special attention to the state.
“Five months have passed, what have they done. They have all taken a U-turn now,” he added.
Nitish said that the people of Bihar voted overwhelmingly for the BJP, yet they are still getting less funds. In this regard he cited the example of Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge and Mahatma Gandhi Setu.
Interestingly, he told the gathering that Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a part of the National Highway and building and maintaining NHs are the responsibility of the central government.
What is strange is that all these nine years he has been making tall claims about changing the face of the roads of Bihar. One can reach Kishanganj within six hours from Patna was the tall claim made by his government when the fact is that this road was a part of the East-West Corridor of the central government and the state has nothing to do with it. Similar was the case with the rural roads constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
However, on Monday the same Nitish said that Mahatma Gandhi Setu might collapse anyday.
He said that when Telangana and Andhra Pradesh could get special status without demanding it why should not Bihar. The Congress-led UPA and BJP both supported that status to these two states in February.
Criticising the BJP for its euphoria over the victory in Haryana and Maharashtra he reminded that Congress got over 400-odd seats in 1984 Lok Sabha polls but its downfall came within five years. So there is no need to go mad over victory as it is only temporary.
He once again said that the BJP got just 31 per cent of the popular votes and counselled the saffron party leaders not to become arrogant as in politics ups and downs do happen.
Nitish’s October 20 show not far away from the spot where stampede took place killing 33 people on October 3 has, in the words of commentators, little to do with special category status, and more to do with keeping his flock together. “After all he played the special status card in the Lok Sabha election, and lost it. He has perhaps exhausted all his options,” commented a political observer.