Politics over special status for Bihar resumes

Patna: A renewed demand for special status category and Central government funds for the development of Bihar has aroused political temperature in Bihar.

Bihar assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary raised the issue during a seminar in Patna on Monday which was also attended by a three-member team of Finance Commission led by Chairman N.K. Singh.

Mr Chaudhary urged the finance commission to “consider the state’s demands for special status and more central funds for overall development”.

In a reply, Mr Singh said that the 15th finance commission would “sympathetically” consider demands for more central funds to Bihar.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had earlier said that “the grant of special status and central funds will boost investment and employment generation in Bihar”.  

The speaker’s questions are likely to heat up the political scene in the state ahead of 2019 general elections.

Sources said that opposition parties have been planning to use the issue of “development and unemployment” during elections.

According to RJD spokesperson Shakti Yadav, “there is anti-incumbency against NDA. People want employment which the government has failed to provide. Good governance policy of the state government has also failed. This government has been misleading people in the name of central funds special status”.

The opposition believes that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar surrendered Bihar’s interest for political gains.

Demands for the special status category to Bihar have been a key issue for Nitish Kumar and his party JD (U). As a matter of fact, between 2009 and 2017, Mr. Kumar had raised the issue several times on various platforms.

In 2009 during a rally, Nitish Kumar despite being with NDA had created a flutter by announcing that he can go with any party which grants special category status to Bihar.

After forming the government with BJP in July 2017 he repeatedly raised the issue and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the state under the special category zone.

According to political analysts here, Mr. Kumar went silent after Centre rejected his demand barely two months after he returned to NDA fold.