DHANARUA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday claimed to have done a substantial amount of work in providing education for the children of marginalised and minority communities under the NDA government.
Addressing a poll gathering of around 3000 people, Kumar aggressively challenged the Opposition, led by RJD in Bihar, to match the works done by him for the education of the downtrodden people. "Votes have natural right to go for the vikas (development); not for those, who have an attitude of making 'vakbas' only," he said.
Canvassing for the NDA candidate and Union minister of rural development Ram Kripal Yadav, who is seeking the second term on the ticket of BJP from Patliputra LS seat, Kumar said, "We have opened 2100 new primary schools in the state to provide education to the children of marginalised and minority communities". "What have they done in it? I ask them to name at least one," he said.
He also claimed that the dropout rate of children from extremely poor and minority communities in Bihar has declined to almost 0 to 1 per cent. Hitting out at the opposition, he further said that unlike the Opposition, politics for the NDA has never been about wealth.
"Not only all this, over 2 lakh new classrooms have also been built by us for the education of downtrodden families' children. Education is a must to them to empower them especially educationally and economically. But some leaders of opposition-ruled in the state for 15 years and did nothing for them," he said, targeting the RJD.
Seeking votes for the NDA, he said, changes in lives of poor people are possible only when the NDA continues in governance as it has a vision, sincerity and political will to do the best for the state. He lauded the performance of Ram Kripal Yadav in central cabinet said Yadav is a development-minded politician and served well to his people in constituency development wise.