Congress betrayed Bihar on special category status: Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday targeted the Congress for betraying the state on its demand for special category status.

"The Congress is delaying decision on the Raghuram Rajan Committee report to keep its ally happy in Bihar as part of politics ahead of the next general elections (in 2014)," Nitish Kumar told newspersons here.

The committee identified Bihar as one of the "least developed". The state is set to receive more funds for development, even if not special category status, under a new criteria to measure backwardness.

By hitting against the Congress, Nitish Kumar made it clear his party, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), has no hope of alliance with the former as it was widely speculated for months after he dumped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Nitish Kumar has repeatedly declared he would support a party that would grant special category status to Bihar.

Nitish Kumar was in favour of an alliance with the Congress to counter BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi till early this month.

The chief minister also did not rule out JD-U hobnobbing with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan in the state.

"Politics is a game of possibility, there is open mind to join hands with any party," Nitish Kumar said in reply to possibility of JD-U's likely alliance with LJP.

Last week, he said the JD-U is not worried about any likely tie-up of the Congress, the Rashtriya Janta Dal and the LJP for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.