Nitish kicks off campaign
PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar kicked off the assembly election campaign of his Janata Dal (United) on Monday, promising to create access to irrigation for every farm in the state and pledging that prohibition will continue if his party’s coalition government is voted back to power.
In his first virtual rally ahead of the polls that will take place amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Kumar acknowledged the support and welfare measures provided by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre and hit out at Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which responded in kind and questioned his track record.
“We have achieved several milestones in our all-round development journey...Now, we promise to provide irrigation facilities to every parcel of cultivable land and further strengthen rural road network to improve the lives of 76% of the population dependent on agriculture.” said Kumar, who has named his campaign Nishchay Samvad.
The JD (U) president, upset by a social media post by Lalu Prasad that termed him (Kumar) a drag on Bihar, asked elderly voters to explain to the young the change between Bihar now and during the 15-year rule of the jailed RJD leader and his wife Rabri Devi.
“People are breathing a sigh of relief that you are inside jail. When you had the opportunity to do good, you wasted the opportunity,” Kumar said.
Leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav attacked Kumar for what he called his 15 years of misrule.
“Bihar is a state with maximum youth population. Why has the chief minister not been able to stop migration, malnutrition and unemployment in the state even after being in power for 15 years in the state? He was not able to establish industries in the state,” Yadav said.
“In the last 15 years, why did unemployment, poverty, hunger and migration increase in Bihar? Why is the unemployment rate, at 46.61% in Bihar, the highest in the country and why has it become the centre of unemployment?,” he said, asking the chief minister to respond.