Nitish responsible for ills in Bihar : Anwar

Accusing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of being responsible for the 'ills' plaguing Bihar, NCP, however, supported his demand for a special state status to the state.

Accusing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of being responsible for the 'ills' plaguing Bihar, NCP, however, supported his demand for a special state status to the state.

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"People of Bihar will like to know from Kumar what he did for ensuring special state category, now being pressed for by him, when he was a powerful minister in the erstwhile NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee," NCP General Secretary Tariq Anwar told newsmen in Patna after being felicitated on his appointment as the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha.

Kumar, as a railway minister, had sat idle on the issue all through without bothering to raise the issue after a separate Jharkhand state was carved out of Bihar in 2000.

He charged Kumar with 'doing politics' on the contentious issue, which was aimed at clinging to power. "It stands exposed now,"

Anwar also slammed Kumar for allegedly resorting to 'caste politics' and toeing the line once adopted by RJD chief Lalu Prasad who used the issue relating to social justice 'to the hilt' and ruled the state along with his wife Rabri Devi for about 15 years without delivering justice deserved by the extremely backward classes, dalits and minorities.