Lok Sabha polls may be held in 2023 itself: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to officials

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said the Lok Sabha elections could be held this year itself.
Addressing an event of the rural works department (RWD) after launching altogether 5,061 projects of rural roads and bridges worth Rs6,680 crore, Nitish asked the officials to do the works faster as "who knows when the (Lok Sabha) elections will happen? It's not necessary that the elections will be held next year. Koi thikana hai (there is no guarantee)".
Nitish, who has convened the opposition parties' meeting in Patna on June 23 to chalk out strategies to counter BJP and PM Narendra Modi in the next Lok Sabha elections due in 2024, said: "The officers have assured me that all the remaining rural roads works would be completed by January 2024. But I will request you to do the works faster, as early as possible as the elections may take place early."
The CM also attacked the Narendra Modi-led government for reducing the Centre's share in the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). "Former PM Shradhey Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched the PMGSY in 2000. Then, 100% amount under the PMGSY was allotted by the Centre. But the people now in the central government reduced the amount to 60% in 2015. Now, the state bears the 40% cost. If one goes through total expenditures of the state under the PMGSY, it comes to 50%," he said.
Making an indirect attack on the BJP leaders, Nitish said, "Today, they do not bother to take even the name of Shradhey Atal Ji." Nitish had worked as a cabinet minister in the successive governments led by Vajpayee.
Recalling the assurance given by the RWD officials during the recent review of the departmental works, Nitish told the officials to expedite the appointment of more engineers and employees in the department to ensure proper and timely maintenance of rural roads. The CM said the maintenance of rural roads should be executed only by the departmental engineers and not by contractors. "You should recruit whatever number of engineers and other employees are required for the maintenance works at a faster pace," he told the RWD officers. Deputy CM-cum-RWD minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, chief secretary Amir Subhani and secretary (RWD) Pankaj Kumar Pal also addressed the event.