BJP assails Nitish for begging to UPA govt to grant spl status

The Chief Minister is compromising pride of Bihar, says Sushil Modi

Observing that the special status will not be a panacea of all ills gripping Bihar, the BJP today slammed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for begging to the UPA government to grant special status for mutual political benefits in the next general elections.

'The Chief Minister is compromising pride of Bihar and its people by begging to the Centre to grant special status to Bihar so that the measure could benefit mutually the JD(U) and the Congress in the next general elections,' the senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters.

Stating that the special status was legitimate right, he said that the people would rather like to slug it out to compel the Centre to concede special status to Bihar rather than to beg for it as their chief minister has been doing.

Stating that the BJP was anguished with the manner in which Kumar has been begging to the Centre to grant special status to Bihar, the former deputy chief minister said that his party will showcase the special status demand as a theme during its 'Hunkar Rally' to be held at Patna on October 27 which will be addressed among others by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP workers will raise a slogan, 'Bheekh Nahin Adhikar Chahiye', at the Hunkar Rally to press for the special status demand, he said.

Modi also charged the Chief Minister with indulging in political bargaining with the Congress over the special status demand by offering a pre-poll alliance with it that the Centre grants special status soon and warned him against compromising pride of the people over the issue.

He also tore into Kumar's claims that special status will substantially reduce Bihar's share in Centrally-Sponsored Schemes (CCS) and said that as against the state government's average annual share of Rs. 4000 crore at present, the reduction will be only by a few hundred crores as per documents available with him.

The Chief Minister has been conveniently misleading the people that the state's contributions in the central flagship schemes (14) will be reduced substantially and the funds could be used for launching additional development projects in the event of special status being accorded to Bihar, the former deputy chief minister alleged and dared the former to prove his contention point-by-point.

'It is not only the people of Bihar, but the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too has been misled by our Chief Minister by making false claims in a memorandum that the special status could resolve all economic problems of Bihar,' he said.