Have not given up on special status demand for Bihar: Nitish Kumar

Recently, TDP walked out of the NDA alliance, accusing the BJP of not fulfilling its promise of providing special status to Andhra Pradesh.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday clarified that he has not given up on his demand of special category status for the state. Addressing mediapersons in Patna, the Janata Dal United (JDU) leader said that his party has been demanding special category status for Bihar for more than 10 years.

“We have been continuously demanding it and have not given up the issue. It's interpretation of few people that we are silent on the issue but we don't want to speak about it everyday,” said the Bihar Chief Minister.

This comes two days after reports quoted JDU leader KC Tyagi as saying that a delegation of the party will meet the 15th Finance Commission and submit a petition with regard to the issue.

The statement by the Bihar Chief Minister and the JDU assumes significance as the party is in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. And the BJP is already facing ally trouble over special status to Andhra Pradesh.

Recently, Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) walked out of the NDA alliance, accusing the BJP of not fulfilling its promise of providing special status to Andhra Pradesh.