Bihar elections: Some people just think of family once in power, says Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Friday accused opposition RJD and its allies of seeking votes by creating conflicts and disturbance in society, and thinking just about the families of their leaders once in power. Addressing polls rallies at Dehri on-Sone in Rohtas, and Bhagalpur, where he shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar said that for him Bihar is his family. He appealed to the people to vote the NDA back to power to take the state to newer heights and continue the development works.

"There are some people who get votes by creating conflict and disturbance in society. And after they win, they think only about their families," he said in an apparent attack on the RJD and its supremo Lalu Prasad.

"For these people, family just means the husband, wife, son and daughter. But for me, the entire Bihar is my family," he added.

Referring to the Bhagalpur riots of 1989-90, he said that the past governments had not done anything for justice.

"But when we got the opportunity to work, we got it probed and took action. We gave the victims Rs 2,500 financial aid raised it Rs 5,000 after 2013." He also responded to the opposition's attack on his government over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the migrant crisis. He said everybody knows about the aid handed out by the Centre during the crisis. He said special trains were run with the help of the Centre to bring back Bihari migrants stranded elsewhere.

Kumar said the pandemic has affected the entire world but India has put up an impressive fight under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. "It is because of the cooperation that we received from the Centre that our people could come back by trains and the state's coronavirus recovery rate has reached 94 per cent," he said.
The chief minister said that 500-bed hospitals were set up with the help of the Centre, ration cardholders were given Rs 1,000 each and the state government also handed over ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to those who died because of coronavirus.

During the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav raised several questions over the government's handling of the pandemic and the migrant crises. Kumar also attacked the past government over law and order. "We controlled the incidents of crime and established a rule of law." He said that if he gets another chance, he would take irrigation facilities to each field and new technology to every village.

Kumar said that when he took over the reins from the RJD, the state budget was Rs 24,000 crore, which has now galloped to Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

He said that his government has taken electricity to every house and the power consumption rose to 6,000 mw from 500 mw in 2005.

The story has been taken from a news agency