Lalu Prasad's daughter to Bageshwar baba: Fulfil demand for special status to Bihar

PATNA: While thousands of followers have been braving sweltering heat for the past two days to get solution to their personal and family problems from spiritual leader Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popular as Bageshwar baba, RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya has just one request from him - "Pl help fulfil the demand for granting special category status to Bihar!"
Rohini, who shot into limelight after she donated one of her kidneys to her ailing father in Singapore in December last year, tweeted her wish on Sunday as the followers of religious preacher thronged Taret Pali village near Naubatpur in rural Patna to interact with the Shastri, who is on a five-day visit to the place to deliver 'Hanumant Katha' among his followers till May 17.
"We only request the parchi-wale baba to have our long-standing wish for granting special category status to Bihar fulfilled," Rohini tweeted, triggering bitter reactions from twitterati, who not only mocked but also slammed her act.
"Parchi wale baba.. Send this fodder thief's family to jail soon," tweeted Manish Sharma. Another one wrote, "Babaji doesn't give alms." Yet another twitterati, Krishna, said, "Yes, an application should indeed be moved in the court of Balaji so that Bihar could get rid of the corrupt political family and state's bad luck ends."
Rohini's demand comes amid reports that Shastri, the peethadheesh of Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh, was to hold 'divya darbar' on Monday to address the problems of the masses.
Granting special category status to Bihar remains the very old demand of the state. The demand has been raised again since chief minister Nitish Kumar broke alliance with BJP in August last year to form new government with RJD and other Grand Alliance partners. According to political experts, this demand was first raised before the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee by former CM Rabri Devi.
Later, when Nitish came to power in November 2005, he made it an issue. In the first place, his government handed over memorandums to the Centre over the issue and then in 2014, his party JD(U) organized statewide rallies in its support, culminating in a mega rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan in November 2012. Later, he also held a rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan. But this demand remains unfulfilled till date.
Several other states such as Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan also raised this demand. However, according to a statement given in the Lok Sabha by the minister of state for home affairs on December 11, 2018, "Following the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the special category states cease to exist and thus, no special category status has been granted to any state".