BJP, JD(U) cross swords over Bihar’s special status

Denial of special status to Bihar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi- led NDA government will be major bone of contention in the wake of the forthcoming Assembly election. According to senior JD(U) leaders, the party will go to town with facts and figures of how the Centre is strangling poll-bound Bihar by cutting funds meant for infrastructure development in the state. According to sources, the JD(U), in consultation with other ally partners, is planning to roll out a massive ‘pol-khol’ campaign against the Modi government across the state.

“By denying special status to Bihar, the Centre has betrayed the mandate of people as BJP leaders had promised special status tag to Bihar if they voted for BJP during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. But a year after being in the government, they have rejected the long standing-demand of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” said JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

Dubbing BJP a ‘threat to democracy’, Kumar said: “With the recommendations of 14th Finance Commission coming into effect, Bihar has been deprived of the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), which is a big setback for the state. 

The 10 per cent jump in the devolution formula is actually ending up in a loss for Bihar as the state is benefiting only in terms of devolution hike but all other sources of funding are being stopped.”

Defending the move, senior state BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said: “JD(U) is unnecessarily creating a controversy. PM Modi himself had said last week that the Centre is mulling a financial package of more than Rs 50,000 crore for Bihar,” adding that the move will not make any impact on the performance of BJP in the upcoming Assembly poll.

Notably, the National Development Council first accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland in 1969. Over the years, eight more states were added to the list — Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. 

Sources in the Central government have said giving special status to Bihar in an election year could lead to more such demands from other states in the future, which the Centre may not be able to fulfil because of financial constraints.