Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he will continue spearheading the demand of special category status for Bihar, and it led to an awkward moment between him and his deputy, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

"We have been demanding special status for Bihar since 2006. The recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission sent across the message that granting special category status to Bihar was possible. So, we are pursuing the matter and will present it before the 15th Finance Commission on behalf of the government," Nitish said on the sidelines of the Lok Samvad (public interaction) programme at his 1 Aney Marg official residence.

With Sushil Modi and several others present, the chief minister said all parties have unanimously supported the demand at an all-party meeting and the state legislature had passed the demand for special category status over a decade ago.

A signature campaign for the status had seen 1 crore people expressing their support for the demand, and a Bihar delegation had also met then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over it. Now, with the same alliance in power at the Centre and in Bihar, it has whipped up expectations and is also putting pressure on the alliance partners who have to look for answers about the non-fulfilment of the long-pending demand.

Nitish was on Monday repeatedly asked why Bihar was not getting special category status despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the run-up to the 2015 Assembly elections having promised special assistance to the state if the BJP came to power in the state.

Nitish directed the question to Sushil. The deputy chief minister, however, deflected the question by saying that the occasion was a media interaction of the chief minister and if people wanted to ask him (Sushil) about the issue, they could always do so separately on any other occasion.

Arguing about the need for special category status, Nitish reiterated that Bihar was a land-locked, backward state with per capita income much below the national average, and faced the vagaries of nature such as floods and droughts.

"A land-locked state naturally will not have much capital investments because industrialists prefer to have manufacturing units in coastal areas. Major investments won't come here. Yet, investments have come due to our own policies," Nitish said.

Special category status, he added, will lead to tax rebates or reimbursements that would attract big entrepreneurs. Moreover, the state's share in Centre-sponsored schemes will go down. At present in majority of such schemes the share for special category states (such as some of the north-east states) is just 10 per cent, while in other states it is 40 per cent or more.