Bihar Assembly election: Nitish Kumar welcomes poll schedule, unveils second part of '7 resolves' initiative

Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday welcomed the Assembly poll schedule announced by the Election Commission, and said that he would take up more developmental programmes if the people of the state give him another chance to serve them. Like his “saat nischay” (seven resolves of good governance) of the current term, his government would launch phase-II of the development initiative, Kumar told a press conference at JD(U) office. Seven resolves, launched by the state administration for its 2015-20 term, comprised seven schemes to ensure basic necessities such as supply of piped drinking water, construction of toilets and concrete drains and electricity connection to every household. Kumar, also the JD(U) president, said that Phase-II of the seven resolves would include enhancing skill of youths to brighten their jobs prospect, promoting entrepreneurship among women by providing them financial assistance, irrigation facility to every agriculture field and additional health facilities for people and animals. On seat-sharing among the NDA constituents, he said that now that the election schedule has been declared, the process will be fast-tracked. As per the poll panel announcement, voting for Bihar Assembly elections will be held in three phases — on 28 October, 3 November and 7 November, and votes will be counted on 10 November. On Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan taking potshots at him regularly indicating a rift within the ruling alliance, Kumar said that he does not pay much attention to “what anybody is speaking. We want that all constituents of the NDA fight the election unitedly and win handsomely.” “The BJP is also working for this,” he said. Kumar reiterated that “15 years vs 15 years” would definitely be the campaign narrative. The NDA has been highlighting the works done during the 15 years of RJD rule in Bihar from 1990 to 2005 vis a vis those under Kumar between 2005 and 2020. On campaigning during COVID crisis, he said he would ask his party and the NDA coalition members to abide by the guidelines issued by the poll panel in this regard.