Patna, Oct. 3: Nitish Kumar says it’s people’s right. Lalu Prasad claims it’s his “copyright”. The issue of according special status to Bihar has taken a twist with both Nitish and his bête noire Lalu claiming the first to demand it.
At a series of public addresses during his Adhikar Yatra last month, the chief minister iterated that unless special status was accorded to the state, the JD(U) would not extend its support to any party after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
However, Lalu has claimed that the “original copyright” for special status to Bihar is his. “The demand for special status is originally ours. Nitish is cheating the people of Bihar for the polls. He has been instrumental in getting the demand rejected when he was a Union minister,” Lalu said.
He added: “On February 3, 2002, then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee inaugurated several railway projects from Gandhi Maidan. Rabri Devi was chief minister then and had raised the issue of special status for Bihar and a substantial package of Rs 1.89 lakh crore for Bihar in view of the bifurcation of the state. Atalji initially agreed to both the demands. However, after talking to Nitish, Vajpayee changed his stand. Before returning to Delhi, he said at Patna airport that special status was not possible. Nitish got Vajpayee to change his stand because he felt that Rabri Devi would get the credit.”
Lalu added that the criteria for special status was decided by the National Development Council of which Nitish was a member. “If he seriously wants to change the criteria, he should hold a meeting of NDA chief ministers and get them to agree to change the criteria. Uttarakhand was given special status during the NDA regime. Why could not Nitish get it for Bihar?” he quipped.
But the JD(U) leaders dismissed Lalu’s charge. “During NDA’s previous regime in the state (2005-2010), both the assembly and Council moved a unanimous resolution for special status to Bihar. Rabri Devi, who was Leader of the Opposition then, should have raised the matter,” said party spokesperson Sanjay Jha.
Jha said Lalu happened to be a key ally in the UPA-I when Rabri Devi was chief minister. “But Laluji did not use his influence to get special status to Bihar. He used it to get the Assembly dissolved instead.”
The Adhikar Yatra addresses have stirred a hornets’ nest as Nitish emphasised that special status was not a demand but a right of Bihar. His statement that 40 Lok Sabha MPs from the state could not be ignored in 2014 has rattled both the BJP, which is under the impression that he might go it alone, and the RJD that is trying to find a reply to Nitish’s onslaught.
