Nitish Kumar gives Bihar bandh call to protest special status denial

PATNA: Attacking the Congress-led UPA government for granting special category status to Seemandhra and ignoring a similar demand of Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today gave a Bihar bandh call on March 1.

"This is betrayal with Bihar and other backward states," Kumar told reporters outside state Assembly here.

An agitated Chief Minister appealed to all political parties and people from all walks of life to strike work on March 1 to protest the Congress-led UPA government's "betrayal" with Bihar and press for similar status to the state.

"We have no problem with Seemandhra getting special category status but the same has been denied to Bihar despite a favourable recommendation of the Raghuram Rajan Committee," Kumar said.

"UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi advocated for the special category status to Seemandhra and it was promised by the Prime Minister overnight... But, a similar legitimate demand of Bihar is lying in cold storage," Kumar said.

Congress is playing politics over the special category status issue, the chief minister further alleged.

Meanwhile, former deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that the party has given a call for "Rail roko" on February 28 to protest the Centre's "discriminatory" approach towards the state.

"We have decided to protest the Centre's discrimination by stopping trains across Bihar on February 28 to express the anger of people," Sushil Modi said.

The BJP leader also accused the CM of "weakening" the fight for the state's special category status by "hijacking" the issue and making it JD(U)'s "political weapon".

Asked if BJP would participate the March 1 bandh called by the CM, Modi said that Kumar announced the bandh without consulting all political parties.