JD(U) reiterates special category status demand

Patna: On the eve of the Union Budget, BJP’s ally JD(U) on Monday made a fresh pitch for special category status to Bihar.
JD(U)’s national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan raised the issue again through his two tweets on the plea of Bihar’s backwardness. “Bihar has been maintaining a double-digit growth rate for the last one and a half decades under the able leadership of chief minister @NitishKumar.Still, the state is in the phase of backwardness due to different reasons... Therefore, we all have been continuously demanding the status of a special category state to Bihar from @PMOIndia Shri @Narendramodi in the interest of people of Bihar. Both the houses of Bihar legislature have already passed a unanimous resolution in support of the demand,” Lalan tweeted in Hindi. The JD(U) chief has also tagged PM Modi and Bihar CM Nitish.
In fact, Lalan has been tweeting in favour of his party’s demand for grant of special category status almost every day for the last two weeks.
“By demanding special category status, the people of Bihar are neither begging nor are they asking for a loan... The people of Bihar want from the Centre what is their rightful due. We will keep lending our voice to them and raising the matter from ‘Sansad se sadak tak’ (from Parliament to the streets),” he stated a few days ago.
Though senior JD(U) leaders, in private talks, admit that they are not hopeful of getting “anything” regarding special category status in the Union Budget, the party would keep raising this demand till it is fulfilled by the Centre.
“I do not understand why the BJP is against this demand. We are not speaking against either PM Modi or any top BJP leaders. We are only demanding special category status to Bihar, citing its backwardness. If our demand does not find place in the Union Budget, we will keep raising it,” JD(U) national secretary general K C Tyagi told TOI over phone.
When contacted, JD(U)’s Sitamarhi MP Sunil Kumar Pintu, who had raised the demand for grant of special category status to Bihar in the Lok Sabha on December 14 last year, said his party was committed to it in the interest of people of Bihar.