Chief minister Nitish Kumar and JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav at Gandhi Maidan. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Nov. 4: Asserting that he would not rest till the Centre acceded to his demand for special category status to Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar today declared to take his campaign beyond the state.

He announced before the capacity crowd at Gandhi Maidan to hold another Adhikar Rally at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi in March next year if the Centre failed to give Bihar what he dubbed as the “right of the people” by then. He also pledged support to all other backward states seeking special treatment.

The Gandhi Maidan is believed to have a capacity to accommodate around three lakh people. Thousands could not enter the venue and the crowd spilled onto the streets around.

While announcing to take his campaign for the special category status beyond Bihar, Nitish reached out to his 16-year-old ally — the BJP. Scotching speculation over the “trust deficit” between the two allies when his undeclared rival and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was in the city, Nitish expressed his bonhomie with the ally.

“The BJP has lost its great patriarch, Kailashpati Mishra. And so have we. We are all with the BJP in the hours of crisis,” he said, heaping praise on the departed leader.

It is hard to draw a parallel between Nitish’s Adhikar Rally and Lalu Prasad’s first Garib Maha Raila in 1992 or the one Jayaprakash Narayan addressed on the same day in 1974 against the Indira Gandhi government then in terms of the crowd and response. But Nitish undoubtedly addressed a mammoth gathering at the Patna leg of Adhikar Rally with an array of JD(U) leaders, including the party president, Sharad Yadav. The enthusiastic crowd — mainly the youths — responded to his clarion call for the “long march” overwhelmingly.

When Nitish asked the gathering to raise their hands if they supported the demand for the special category status, lakhs of hands went up. Bolstered by the crowd’s response, the chief minister said: “It is just a stoppage in the way of our haq ki ladai (battle for right). We will also fill the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi if the Centre fails to give us our right (special category status). For that, you will have to proceed from Bihar five-six days in advance.”

After a pause, Nitish asked: “Are you ready for that long march?”

Lakhs of hands went up again.

In a bid to reach out to the other states, Nitish, probably for the first time, raised the cause of other states falling on the index of growth and infrastructure in comparison to the national average. “We support the cause of other states falling on the index of human development, per capita income and infrastructure. Along with Bihar, the states suffering from neglect and lack of resources must get special treatment in order to remove regional imbalance and achieve the goal of inclusive growth,” he said.

Nitish hardly said anything new or startling at the rally. He re-articulated his oft-repeated reasons for his demand that he has been making for the past six years. “Bihar is not a hilly state but its large part is inundated by the spiralling water from the Himalayas in Nepal, causing extensive damage to its farmlands and cattle wealth. There is 60 per cent gap between the per capita income of the state and the corresponding national figure. The state is far low on the index of human development, electric power consumption and overall infrastructure in comparison to national average. We are consistently hitting double-digit in the growth rate. But we will achieve the level of national growth rate in 25 years if we progress at the present pace. The special category status is the only way out to ensure tax holidays inviting big investment and generating employment avenues. The youths are in no mood to wait for the next 25 years,” Nitish said amid huge applause from the disciplined crowd.

Despite its monstrous size, the crowd by and large behaved well on the streets and in the field. Vandalism — hallmark of the rallies in the past — was pleasantly missing.

“Through the successful rally, the chief minister has effectively responded to our opponents who tried to disturb it. Through this rally today, Nitish has set a yardstick that the opposition parties will find hard to achieve,” the rural works minister, Bhim Singh, said.

Nitish was happy to see the mammoth crowd attending his rally, but he looked quite cautious to keep his flock together. While turning his attention towards his party MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other office-bearers on the dais, he said: “See, all the chairs put up on the dais are similar in look and make. There is no special chair for any one. All of us are equal in our party, which is a democratic outfit.”

Nitish probably appeased his partymen after noticing his archrival — Lalu — stepping up his campaign against the ruling alliance and reaching out to the crowd to attack the chief minister.

Sharad Yadav, the JD(U) president, used the platform to launch a scathing attack on the UPA-led Manmohan Singh government for indulging in multi-crore scams.

“Even a fraction of what it (UPA-II) illegally gave to some of its favourite industrial houses would have changed the face of Bihar. They (UPA-II) have awarded contracts worth crores illegally to shady contractors without meeting the rightful demand of the state.”

Besides Sharad and Nitish, former chief minister and MP Ramsunder Das, party’s national general secretary Shivanand Tiwari, MPs Ranjan Yadav and Monazir Hassan, and new entrant and close confidante of Nitish Sanjay Jha addressed the rally.

Nitish and the other JD(U) leaders stuck to the book. They kept their speech strictly confined to the demand for the special category status.