Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a party workers’ meet in Patna on Sunday. (ANI)
Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) president Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he would ensure every farm is irrigated if he returns to power in the 2020 Assembly election.
Addressing JD(U)’s booth-level functionaries at a party meeting, Nitish reiterated that the NDA would win over 200 seats in the upcoming polls. Without explicitly mentioning his recent meetings between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish said not much should be read into meetings and that they are needed to create consensus on some subjects.
“If I return to power, I will ensure that every farm gets irrigated,” he said at the meeting. Ahead of the 2015 state polls, Nitish had promised electricity to every home in the state — a promise his government fulfilled by December 2018. According to government sources, farmers will be provided electric connections for irrigation at subsidised rates and the exercise will cost Rs 1,300 crore.
“In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, we won 39 out of 40 seats. NDA will win over 200 seats in the coming Assembly elections,” he said.
Nitish said his party was working for all sections of the society. “Let us co-exist and live peacefully,” he said. On the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, he called “patience” as the matter was sub-judice. Anxieties in some sections of the society, particularly among the minorities, have been addressed with resolutions passed by the Assembly against the National Register of Citizens and insertion of contentious clauses in National Population Register (NPR) forms, he said.
He also pointed out that the law providing for citizenship to refugees fleeing adjoining countries due to religious persecution was conceptualised when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.
Targeting the RJD-Congress combine for their agitations over the citizenship law, Kumar said, “I was a member of Parliament then. And, what I am saying can be verified from the records of the proceedings of the time. Leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh and Lalu Prasad all were in favour of such a legislation back then.”
Further attacking the Opposition parties, he referred to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots. “It is well-known who was in power when the riots took place and how justice eluded the victims for 15 years thereafter. We brought the guilty to book and justice was ensured to the victims. I am more concerned about working for the minorities than getting their votes,” said Nitish.
Indirectly referring to his recent two meetings with Tejashwi, Nitish said, “Do not get confused if someone is meeting someone. We need such meetings to bring consensus on certain issues as we did by passing the unanimous resolutions on NPR and NRC in the Assembly recently.”
Nitish said it was “dirty” on the part of some people to say that migration had increased in Bihar. “In fact, it is decreasing. The Punjab CM recently said lesser number of people are going to Punjab from Bihar now. And if someone wants to work in other parts of the country, it is a secular country and anyone can go anywhere. We will train some people in such a manner that they should go abroad to work.”
The booth-level workers’ meet saw modest attendance. —With PTI inputs