Nitish does a Modi, talks development as he prepares to take oath as Bihar CM

As Nitish Kumar gets set to take oath as Bihar Chief Minister at 5 pm on Sunday, he wrote that he would readily work to transform “the poorest state in India” in to a developed one. [caption id=“attachment_2114287” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nitish Kumar said he will readily work for Bihar’s development. PTI[/caption] In an article on NDTV.com, Kumar said that apart from the state government’s efforts, Bihar also needed strong support from the Centre “to bridge the yawning regional disparity of the country through supportive policy formulations.” He also said that the Special Category Status was one policy measure which could go a long way in Bihar’s development. In the article, Kumar also talked about the importance of lending from banks in growth of the private sector and development of basic infrastructure. “The investment case of Bihar is simple and will provide time-bound returns to the investor, state, and society,” he said in the report. While Kumar said that his government would work for much-needed urban planning and development and an agricultural roadmap to help the small farmers of the state and make the agriculture industry more productive, he also said that law and order would be key to address the problems of injustice and divisiveness in the state. “Bihar is vulnerable to injustice, inaction and divisiveness. While proactive governance is the way to mitigate the risk of natural disasters, the only way to make the state resilient on the social front is the approach of Development with Justice,” he said. Nitish Kumar had been entangled in a political tussle in Bihar when former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi opposed his election as the JD(U) Legislature Party head at a party meeting on 7 February and refused to resign as CM, claiming that he, not Kumar, had majority support in the Assembly. Kumar and his supporters staked a claim to form the government on 8 February and reiterated it when he and other leaders met Bihar Governor KN Tripathi on 9 February. Kumar had then paraded 130 MLAs in front of the Governor and the President and had called for an immediate trust vote in a special session of the Bihar Assembly. After Manjhi resigned as Bihar CM on Friday half an hour before the floor test was about to begin, Kumar met the Governor and staked a claim to form the government. “Today, we reiterated our stand that we have majority, and he (Governor) accepted it and asked us to form government. The swearing-in ceremony will be on 22 February, at 5 pm,” he had said on Friday. (With inputs from PTI)