The Centre dismissed the Nitish Kumar government’s persistent pitch for special status Thursday on the ground that it is no longer relevant. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held a press conference in Patna to say the Bihar government’s demand has lost its relevance after the 14th Finance Commission came up with a formula for sharing of tax resources between the Centre and the states. “Special status ka daur samapt ho chuka hai (the era of special status is over),” Jaitley said at the press conference, where he also spoke of the NDA’s prospects, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ridiculed Nitish and his grand alliance with the Congress and the RJD. On what Bihar has got Jaitley said the Centre has committed Rs 1.65 crore to Bihar — Modi has announced a special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore, in addition to Rs 40,000 crore for completion of ongoing infrastructure projects. “Over and above that, we want to give more to Bihar,” Jaitley said. [related-post] He criticised the state government for describing it as a “repackaging of old schemes”. If it is indeed repackaging, he said, the state government should ask the Congress why those projects were not implemented; the Congress was in power when the projects were conceived. Now that the Congress is in alliance with Nitish, he should question it about non-implementation, he said. On NDA’s prospects Jaitley predicted a landslide victory. Widely credited with having played a key role in the NDA’s victories in the previous two polls, he cited from his experience and said he could see a uniform pattern of massive support for the NDA in all three regions where voting has taken place so far. He was optimistic of the trend sustaining. He said Modi’s popularity and the faith of the people of Bihar in his leadership have swung the mood. The people here want a government that could work in tandem with the Centre after the announcement of the package of Rs 1.65 lakh crore, he said. On Nitish and his alliance “It is an alliance of desperation in which the Congress is struggling for existence and relevance in Bihar as it is fighting a battle to save itself from extinction,” Jaitley said. He said the RJD is a family group in which one generation cannot contest, hence attempts are being made for a transition from one generation to the next. He described the JD(U) and Nitish as “opportunists” for whom this election is the last attempt at survival. “Nitish rode our strength and sat in the driver’s seat in Bihar before dumping us. He then tried to wean away a section of RJD leaders after Lalu Prasad was convicted in fodder scam, apparently believing the latter will stay in jail. But to his surprise the RJD chief got bail and kept his constituency,” Jaitley said. And when Modi grew in stature, Nitish had no option but to go back to the RJD for survival after ditching the BJP, Jaitley said. [With PTI inputs]
