Opposition leaders have dismissed Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as a “physically retired” and “mentally tired” man ahead of the state Assembly polls. And his Haryana counterpart, Nayab Singh Saini, has publicly expressed that the BJP will win the elections in the eastern state “under the leadership of Samrat Choudhary”. But it seems like Nitish is not quite done with politics yet. Members of the JD(U) have put up a poster outside their office in the state capital asserting that he would hold on to the top post in the state till 2030. The poster boldly declares, ‘25 se 30, phir se Nitish’. It remains to be seen if the ‘Nitish magic’ does the trick this time.
Tejashwi going the Didi way with anti-Waqf jab?
RJD firebrand Tejashwi Yadav recently added to the growing heap of voices against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, vowing that the law would be discarded “in the dustbin” if his party came to power in Bihar. Union Minister and BJP veteran Giriraj Singh reacted sharply to Yadav’s remarks, saying, “Does Tejashwi want to turn Bihar into Bengal?” Singh took a serious note of the recent episodes of violence that broke out during anti-Waqf protests in Murshidabad and warned the RJD heavyweight against leading Bihar down the same path as West Bengal. “People of Bihar do not want to turn the state into Bengal under the RJD,” he stressed.
NDA to play up benefits of double-engine govt
With Bihar set to go to polls later this year, leaders of the BJP-JD(U) alliance have decided to focus on spreading awareness among the masses about how the state has benefitted from the double-engine government. Leaders of the bloc plan to hold public events to dwell on how Bihar’s economy has progressed under the NDA rule and how the Centre has raised the budgetary allocation to the state in the previous two financial years. Further, development projects such as the Janki Path, the Greenfield Corridor and new airports will be high on the agenda of topics to be discussed by the NDA leaders during public meetings.
Ramashankar
Our correspondent in Bihar
ramashankar@newindianexpress.com