Key Nitish aide revives special status demand

A fresh demand for the grant of special category status to Bihar was raised inside the assembly on Friday by a key aide of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is now in the BJP-led NDA.

Power minister Bijendra Yadav, presenting his department’s budget before the House, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfil the longstanding demand or at least consider providing the state with a “special economic package.” “I request the prime minister, through this House, to consider giving special status to Bihar or a special economic package. We have achieved a lot with our limited resources. So many people have been pulled out of poverty. But a lot more remains to be done. The state has immense potential in the power sector since three sources of energy, water, air, and sunlight are available here in plenty,” said Yadav, one of the senior-most ministers.

Notably, this is the first time that the demand for special status has been raised since Kumar, the JD(U) president, returned to the BJP-led NDA a month ago. Kumar has been raising the demand since he took over as the chief minister in 2005.

However, the Modi government has contended that the

I request the prime minister, through this House, to consider giving special status to Bihar or a special economic package BIJENDRA YADAV,

Power minister

grant of special category status was no longer possible since the provision was scrapped by the 14th Finance Commission when the Congress-led UPA ruled the Centre.

Kumar, who was with the INDIA bloc before returning to the NDA, had during that time revived the demand with fresh vigour and promised special category status to not just Bihar but “all backward states” if the antiBJP coalition came to power.

When Yadav, a former state president of JD(U), raised the demand, those seated beside him included Kumar as well as deputy chief ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both from BJP.