As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pledges his support to any political formation which grants special status to the State after coming to power, his Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi said the Congress-led UPA Government has been doing injustice to Bihar and other backward States during the last nine years and claimed that Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s announcement for revisiting criteria fixed for according special status to poor States is intended at salvaging the Congress’s position in the 2014 lok Sabha election.
Addressing the concluding day function of newly formed State BJP Executive Committee meeting in Patna on Sunday, Sushil Modi said that the Centre on one hand talks about special status and special package to the backward States while on the other hand it does not hesitate in reducing the central assistance to them by Rs 60,000 crore during 2012-13. He said that such type of an approach is in contradiction to its public posturing. “Now when the lok Sabha election is approaching, Congress is showing sympathy towards Bihar and other backward States”.
Describing Congress as a sinking ship, Modi said that anybody who would board the ship, will meet the same future eventually. Expressing the party’s willingness to broaden the base of NDA, Modi said that his party is presently busy with preparations for elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and the name of the Prime Ministerial candidate would be announced after elections in these States
get over.
He said that he has a long standing relationship with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and described him as a senior and popular leader.
He also claimed that only the NDA Government will accord special status, provide special package or extend other central support to backward to Bihar and other backward States.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Shatrughan
Sinha said that his party is competent enough to contest elections without any alliance in Bihar but his party always wants to strengthen the NDA by inducting more parties into it instead of losing any
existing one.