Nitish responsible for the lack of development in Bihar: BJP

Patna: The BJP today alleged that development and governance had come to a standstill in Bihar over the past one year, and said former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had pushed the state to political instability by insulting the mandate to the NDA in 2010 Assembly polls. “The morale of bureaucracy has been hit by the turn of events unfolding in Bihar over the past one year and development has come to a grinding halt for which Kumar is alone responsible,” senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_1314763” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in this file photo. Image courtesy PIB [/caption] “Bihar has been thrown into political instability as the former chief minister chose to insult the mandate of 2010 Assembly polls in which voters had given three-fourth majority to the NDA to carry out development, but he chose to break the alliance and ushered in instability in his second term,” he said. The political situation in Bihar had come to such a passe that Kumar had to take support of Congress and RJD to ensure survival of a fragile JD(U) government headed now by his successor Jitan Ram Manjhi, he said. The former chief minister had obviously compromised with his principles by taking support of the Congress and RJD to run the Manjhi government and by doing so he conveniently ignored the fact that the electorate had rejected the two parties in successive Assembly polls in Bihar, the former deputy chief minister said. Describing the appointment of the new Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi as a second betrayal of the 2010 mandate which, he said, was for Nitish Kumar and not for Manjhi to rule. The BJP leader said that Kumar had resigned from the post of chief minister by taking moral responsibility of the JD(U)’s abysmal performance in the general elections. But, he said, Kumar had “manipulated his position to install Manjhi as his successor knowing fully well that the latter did not have political strength as well administrative acumen to control the bureaucracy.” The results were there to be seen as the law and order situation had deteriorated and development come to a grinding halt ever since Manjhi took over the reins of Bihar, Modi said. He regretted that Bihar would have to suffer for the next 15 months in an atmosphere of political and administrative anarchy foisted upon by the former chief minister. PTI