Jobs, scrapping of farm laws in GA manifesto

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)— led Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday released its manifesto—Badlav ka Sankalp (Resolution for Change)—for the upcoming assembly elections at a joint meeting, promising to offer jobs to lakhs of youths and repeal the farm acts recently enacted by the Centre if the alliance is voted to the power.

The manifesto was released just before RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav launched a whirlwind campaign of the party nominees in the fray for the first phase of polling on October 28. As many as 71 seats out of 243 are going to the polls in the first phase. Meanwhile, the BJP once again issued a clarification that the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is not a part of their alliance in Bihar.

“The BJP is very clear in its stand. LJP is not a part of our alliance. We want to tell Chirag Paswan that he should not harbour any illusion. BJP-JD (U) are fighting the election and Nitish Kumar ji will be the chief minister,” Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupender Yadav said on Saturday.

Releasing the manifesto in presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and other GA leaders, Tejashwi said that the GA government at its first meeting would approve the process for appointments on about 10 lakh jobs in the government. “Contractual teachers would be entitled for same pay for same work, for which they have been agitating for long,” said Tejashwi, who is also the GA’s chief ministerial candidate.

Assuring the people to stand by his commitments, Tejashwi said that they were not the people, who “conveniently forget the promises”. He said Bihar had double engine government for the past 15 years, yet the state remained deprived of the special status. “Trump will not come to accord special status to Bihar, which was once promised by the Prime Minister,” said the son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Countering the charge of ‘inexperience’ by the opposition, Tejashwi said that vision for development did not necessarily come from age. “As the deputy CM, we have laid the foundation of development with great vision. I as a minister of road construction department proposed development of dedicated expressway to connect the Bihta airport. Many state highways were converted as the national highways (NHs),” said the RJD leader, adding that more than 60 scams took place during the Nitish Kumar-led NDA dispensation in Bihar. The RJD leader said that Bihar was stabbed on its back by the JDU-BJP combine. Congress leader Surjewala said that the first assembly sitting of the GA government would see annulment of the three controversial farm acts that seek to defeat the objectives of green revolution in the state.

The opposition leaders, however, dismissed the GA’s manifestos as an electoral illusion. Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Modi said, “The Congress, which used to grab land from farmers, is now showing itself to be farmers’ friendly.” JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad wondered how the RJD-led coalition was talking about offering jobs to youths when it had failed to alleviate poverty during its 15-year rule in the past.

MEANWHILE,

THE BJP ONCE AGAIN ISSUED A CLARIFICATION THAT THE LJP WAS NOT PART OF ITS ALLIANCE IN BIHAR