He made the statement as he started his campaign for the 2014 parliamentary elections with JD (U)'s
much-hyped 'Sankalp rally' at Chagraha in East Champaran district.
Nitish asked people to strengthen his hands and send as many candidates of his party to the Lok Sabha as possible to force the Centre to give special status to Bihar. He said despite his best efforts, the Centre is not taking the issue seriously.
"We are not demanding special status for Bihar only. Our demand includes such status for Jharkhand too, because the Centre has done gross injustice to us."
Nitish asked people to take a pledge to take this struggle to its logical conclusion. "The demand for special status to Bihar will be JD (U)'s main poll plank," the CM said.
The JD (U) would hold 12 'Sankalp rallies' across the state till February 2014 to press for its demand for special category status and caution people against BJP-led "divisive" forces.
"My party leaders and I have come to take a 'sankalp (pledge)' that we will continue our struggle to achieve special category status for boosting the growth of Bihar," he said.
Nitish said he was committed to inclusive development of society, with emphasis on uplift of dalits, mahadalits and members of the minority community.
"If we succeed in our endeavour, our state will become a cynosure of states. We have to frustrate the designs of vested interests hell-bent on creating communal disturbances.''
Making reference to his bete noire and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Modi, the CM said some leaders are highlighting the Gujarat model, but Biharis are being driven away from Gujarat and Maharashtra.
0 comments:
Post a Comment