Patna, June 14: The ruling JD(U) today decided to renew its demand for the special category status to Bihar after the Centre’s inter-ministerial group rejected the same on the plea that the state did not meet the stipulated criteria.

The party at its executive committee meeting here authorised the state JD(U) chief, Basishtha Narayan Singh, to work out a “detailed and sustainable” agitation plan to be carried out across the state as well as Delhi till the Centre conceded the demand.

The immediate political objective behind raising the special category demand again is said to be putting in place an “exercise” to water down the differences between the extremely backward castes and the upper caste lobbies in the party in the aftermath of murder of Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh “Mukhiya”.

The EBC cadres, which overwhelmingly supported Nitish Kumar-led NDA in 2010 Assembly election, apparently, got “jittery” in the wake of the perception gaining the ground that the NDA regime was “soft” towards the Ranvir Sena — a dismantled militia of the upper castes — and its slain chief who was alleged to have executed over 20 massac-res in Dalit-dominated areas.

The EBCs cadres raised the question why the government succumbed to the demand of the Ranvir Sena — now re-organised under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Rastravadi Kisan Sangathan — to hand over the probe of Mukhiya murder to the CBI while sitting on their demand to move the Supreme Court against the Patna High Court’s order acquitting 23 suspects in the 1996 Bathani Tola massacre. Sources said the JD(U), by raising the special category demand afresh, has tried to unite its cadres for a “bigger goal”.

“The party has constituted a committee under the leadership of water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary to study the grounds on which the inter-ministerial group rejected the demand for special status and prepare fresh grounds based on solid facts and logic,” Basishtha said.

He also said that the party executive committee had constituted another panel headed by party MP RCP Singh to strengthen the JD(U)’s organisational structure from panchayat to state levels to provide logistical and cadre support to the agitation for the special category status.

Basishtha — an old warho-rse — will himself chalk out the dates and venues of the pr-otests across the state against the Centre rejecting the demand for the special status.

The report of an inter-ministerial group — set up by the planning commission in September 2011 to look into Bih-ar’s demand for special status — rejected the same, saying the state can be given special economic assistance for development works. The group submitted its report to the prime minister’s office on May 2.