PATNA: The repeated demand from the Centre to accord special status to Bihar was part of a well-planned political strategy of Nitish Kumar’s party, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said on Saturday. Chirag indicated that the ongoing tension in the NDA allies — BJP and JD-U — was part of a larger plan of Nitish. The Bihar chief minister still cherishes the dream of becoming the PM, the Lok Janshakti Party chief said.
“He (Nitish) is well educated and aware of the fact that the provision of according special status to any state has already been scrapped. Yet, JD-U keeps demanding for the special status,” the Jamui MP told the media at Hajipur.While JD-U MP Sunil Kumar Pintu has said that a delegation of 21 MPs would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to consider the long pending demand of special status for Bihar, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Bashishtha Narain Singh claimed that special status was the only panacea for Bihar’s all-round development.
Chirag wondered as to why the Bihar chief minister kept silent when the provision of the special status was scrapped by the then UPA government in the Centre. “Nitish Kumar Ji would have raised objection over it and pressured the then government not to do so in the interest of backward states. But he didn’t do so.”