Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that consensus between the JD(U) and the BJP over sharing of three vacant seats of the Bihar legislative Council has demonstrated how strong the alliance is functioning in the State.
Talking to the mediapersons on the Assembly premises during filing of nomination papers by two JD(U) nominees and one BJP nominee for filling up the vacant seats, Nitish said that the agreement over division of seats also reflects how both the alliance partners respect the coalition dharma.
“Both JD(U) and BJP have been running the coalition Government in Bihar by arriving at consensus on various issues all these years and now both of them shared the vacant State legislative Council seats in pursuance of the same policy,” he remarked.
Manjar Alam and Raj Kishore Kushwaha filed nomination papers as JD(U) candidate while Vivek Thakur, son of BJP vice president CP Thakur filed his papers as BJP candidate.
Vivek Thakur will fill up the seat vacated due to death of RJD MlC Badshah Prasad Azad and the term of this seat will complete in May, 2014 while Manjar Alam will fill up the seat vacated due to demise of RJD MlC Ramashraya Prasad and its term will complete in 2016.
Similarly, Raj Kishore Kushwaha will occupy the seat vacated due to demise of JD(U) MlC Ramashrya Prasad Singh. The term of this seat will complete in 2018.
Reacting to Union Planning Minister Rajiv Shukla’s remark that the Centre was considering Bihar’s demand of the special status to the State, the Chief Minister said that Shukla’s comment is a matter of happiness but now the Centre should act on its promises too.
He said the State Government has kept presenting its case before the Centre and the UPA Government has also agreed to it in principle. Its intentions of granting special status to Bihar was first reflected in the Economic Survey while Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram also made a mention of it in his Budget Speech.
“How long we will wait, now the time has come that the UPA Government should also act on it,” he added.
On the present stalemate in Parliament over the issue of coal blocks allocation and 2G spectrum scam, he said that the UPA Government is responsible for such type of a situation in Parliament, though refusing to elaborate on the matter.
Besides Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, State JD(U) president Vashishtha Narayan Singh, State BJP president Mangal Pandey, NDA convener and BJP Minister Nand Kishore Prasad Yadav, Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Chief Whip of the ruling party Shravan Kumar, several MlAs and MlCs were present when the NDA candidates filed nomination papers for the legislative Council seats.
The last date for filing of nomination papers is April 29 while papers will be scrutinised the next day. The last date for withdrawal of the candidature is May 2.
Meanwhile, the JD(U) received a shot in the arm when former MlA Ram Pravesh Rai joined the party in presence of Vashishtha Narayan Singh, party MP Ramchandra Prasad Singh and Education Minister PK Shahi.