In a bid to put the speculation to rest, the JD(U) on Thursday maintained that the demand of the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for special category status for the state has no element of “bargain” with the ruling UPA at the Centre. The JD(U), which will soon have election for the post of party president, claimed that it has no plans to support the UPA even if the demand for the special category status was to be accepted by the Centre. After JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, in an interview with this paper, made it clear that there could be no tie up with the UPA in future, the party national general secretary K. C. Tyagi on Thursday told reporters that though his party would welcome if the Centre agreed to the demand of the special category status, the party would not break out of the Opposition NDA alliance. Mr Tyagi said that “granting special category status to Bihar on the basis of its backwardness is not a matter of bargain... It is Bihar’s right and not a bargain. Whether it is UPA or NDA, other backward states should also get such a status,” said the senior JD (U) leader, who added that it is the responsibility of the central government to look after the interest of the poor states. He also rejected the speculation that the JD(U) could consider a proposal to extend support to the central government, which recently lost the support of the key ally DMK, while earlier the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress too had withdrawn the support. Mr Tyagi also made the case of the party’s support to President Pranab Mukherjee at the time of the election as an exception, saying that it was for the seniority and stature of the leader. Meanwhile, the JD (U) will hold election for the post of the party president in April. Mr Tyagi informed that the election, if necessary, in the event of there being more than one candidate, would be held on April 14.
