15 saal bemisaal? Tejashwi Yadav's dig at Nitish Kumar after Bihar rated 'poorest state'

NITI Aayog's 'poverty index' report named Bihar the poorest state in India.

New Delhi: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Monday took an apparent dig at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after Bihar was named the poorest state in the NITI Ayog Poverty Index, reported ANI. The leader criticized Kumar for not doing enough in his 15-year tenure as the CM.

“Bihar has been found to be the poorest state of India in NITI Aayog's 'poverty index' report published recently. If the CM was serious about it, there would've been an improvement. What's the point of '15 saal bemisaal' if the situation is this worse? Yadav told ANI.

The statements came at the backdrop of a report published by Niti Aayog's first Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which named Bihar the poorest state in India.

Apart from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were also named at the bottom.

As per the index, 51.91 per cent population of Bihar is poor, followed by 42.16 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) has been placed fourth in the index, Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is at the fifth spot.

Kerala (0.71 per cent), Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent) have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index.

As per the index, Bihar also has the highest number of malnourished people.

Tejashwi Yadav is the son of Bihar’s veteran leader and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.