Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday claimed to have received ‘clear signal’ from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his demand for special status to country’s third most populous State. Kumar’s aggressive lobbying for the “genuine rights of Bihar” comes at a time when the JD(U)-BJP relationship is facing testing time in the State.
“Whatever the PM said, it gave a clear signal that there will be some forward movement (on my demand). I do not know how and what the PM will do. But it seems there will be an advancement on the issue of revisiting the criteria for special status,” Kumar told reporters after meeting the PM.
Kumar claimed Bihar fulfilled three out of five criteria for such special status. “We are not a hilly State, but rivers originating from hills keep troubling us. We are not a partially populated state, but our dense population is a problem for us,” he said.
“We are fully prepared. We are fighting the battle, which has now entered a decisive phase. Either the Government will take a forward movement in this respect or else we will take a decision after that,” Kumar told reporters outside Parliament after meeting the Prime Minister.
Excited with the success of his Adhikar Rally in the national Capital on Sunday — the first show of strength by the Bihar CM on national arena — Kumar also set a deadline for the UPA to take a call on his demand.
“Time frame is automatically fixed. How much time of this government is leftIJ Elections are due in 2014. If they do something in this period, they can get the benefit of it,” he replied. Kumar refused to ‘politicise’ his meeting with the PM and asked journalists not to see his demand as the politics of realignments.
His plain talks notwithstanding, rumbling in Bihar BJP indicated the junior partner was not ready to play second fiddle any more. At a party meeting in Patna on Sunday, Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi signalled a “shift” from his earlier position to suggest he was ready accepting ‘leadership’ of Narendra Modi, if the party decided so.
Sushil virtually cautioned Nitish against joining the UPA bandwagon and said those who decide to sail with the Congress will sink. Bihar’s Deputy CM was so far considered close to Nitish Kumar, and he was often criticised by his party leaders for virtually endorsing the “anti-Narendra Modi” line of the Bihar CM. Sushil Modi’s change of tune is being seen as a pointer to the fact that the BJP was bracing up the for the inevitable parting of ways.
In Delhi, the Bihar CM also met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to press for special status demand.