BJP to use think tank survey to target Nitish

BJP is set to up the ante against Nitish Kumar in the high-stakes Bihar assembly polls by using the findings of a party-affiliated think tank's research that claims the state has fared badly on socio-economic parameters after he parted ways with the saffron party.
With the election campaign set to intensify in the coming days, the BJP-led NDA will use its data to counter the Bihar Chief Minister's good governance plank citing the fall in economic growth to 9 per cent from over 15 per cent in 2012-13 when BJP was his ally and the rise in crime figures, sources said.

Citing the report of the Economic Survey of Bihar, the research says the agriculture GDP declined by 11.58 per cent from Rs 32,694 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 28,908 crore in 2013-14.
Investment proposals received by the state was Rs 20,000 crore in 2012-13 and it declined to Rs 2,290 crore in 2013-14 and 657 crore in 2014-15 (till June).
Nitish decided to part ways with BJP in the later half of 2013 over the elevation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister, in the party.
The research has been done by Public Policy Research Centre, which is headed by BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, to study the impact of the split between JD(U) and BJP and on governance.

Both the NDA and the Nitish-led grand alliance of JD(U)- RJD-Congress have made development as the main theme of their campaign.

The 'secular' alliance has highlighted the state's development during Nitish's nearly 10-year term while the BJP has insisted that it was all due to his alliance with it and the state has fallen behind after their split.
BJP sources said the research is likely to be released by them in a couple of weeks and will give their campaign against JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance a lot of talking points.
Drawing data from government and public sources, the research says the State Investment Promotion Board of Bihar had got investment proposals of Rs 17,452 crore in 2012-13 but it dropped to Rs 6,059 crore in 2013-14.

While the economic growth floundered, the law and order deteriorated with the total number of kidnapping cases increasing from 4,737 to 6,570 during the period.
"The number of rape cases increased from 927 to 1127, an increase of 22 per cent. Crime cases increased to 1,90,000 in 2014 from 1,60,000 in 2012, an increase of almost 19 per cent," it says.
In its conclusion, the research says, "Year 2013 marked a significant change in the politics of Bihar. With the forced exit of BJP from alliance govt headed by Nitish Kumar, the quality of governance suffered the most. Politics of Bihar changed from politics of performance to the politics of populism.