A day after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday continued his meeting spree in the national Capital and called on non-NDA leaders like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He also drove down to Tihar Jail to meet INlD chief Om Prakash Chautala, whose party is part of the Janata Parivar.
Nitish had on Thursday called on Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and also met his party president Sharad Yadav.
RJD supremo lalu Yadav also joined him.
INlD and SP are part of the Janata Parivar outfit. And Mulayam has been asked to coordinate the merger of the Janata Parivar parties but the issues like differences on a common flag and common party symbol besides clarity on the leadership are delaying the grand plans.
His meeting is also being seen against the backdrop of speeding up of the process of merger of Janata Parivar parties and comes at a time when a larger Opposition unity is being seen on the issue of land Acquisition Bill.
After meeting Chautala, Nitish said that the INlD chief was a senior leader of the erstwhile Janata Parivar.
With Sharad Yadav, Nitish and lalu discussed a gamut of political issues.
There was, however, no word on what transpired in the meeting between Sonia and Nitish,. Their meeting too assumes significance as both Congress and JD(U) along with other Opposition parties have taken a strong stand against the land Acquisition legislation of the Modi Government.
In Patna, the Nitish Government released the copy of memorandum which he submitted to Modi seeking special developmental assistance of over Rsone lakh crore.
“In the light of the Budget speech of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that Bihar will get special financial assistance on the pattern of one given to Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation, we expect the Union government to provide finance to the tune of Rs1,07,887 crore for different projects,” Nitsih said in his memorandum.
The nine-page memorandum sought special financial assistance for projects in six departments — Rural Works, Road Construction, Agriculture, Panchayati Raj, Urban Development and Tourism. A sum of Rs32,600 crore was demanded for connecting habitats having population of 250 and more in all districts with all weather roads, which would be of 41,380 km.
In the Agriculture sector, Kumar demanded Rs41,587 crore for promoting food processing, storage, farm research and cooperative among others.