Bihar and Jharkhand News

Nitish Kumar, Centre ignored Bihar's development: Tejashwi Yadav (Photo: IANS)

Patna, April 24 (IANS) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Central and state governments, accusing them of systematically weakening local self-governance and ignoring Bihar's developmental needs.

Speaking at a Panchayati Raj Day event organised at the party office in Patna, Tejashwi said, "The Bihar government is working to intimidate Panchayats and snatch away their rights. The Mukhiya are being threatened, and an atmosphere of fear has been created in various Panchayats of Bihar."

Tejashwi's remarks come at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bihar and addressed a rally in Madhubani on Panchayati Raj Day.

Tejashwi, the former Deputy Chief Minister, alleged that elected representatives at the grassroots are being sidelined, and centralisation of power is weakening democracy at the village level.

He also painted a grim picture of Bihar's socio-economic situation: "Despite 20 years of NDA rule in Bihar and 11 years at the Centre, Bihar remains India's most backward state."

"Over three to four crore people have migrated. Per capita income is the lowest, farmer incomes are abysmal, and there is no industry or business in sight in Bihar," Tejashwi, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, claimed.

He accused the Centre of stepmotherly treatment towards Bihar, citing the denial of special status.

For the upcoming elections, Tejashwi called on RJD workers to mobilise at the grassroots and mocked CM Nitish with an agricultural analogy.

"If you sow the same seed for 20 years, the soil becomes barren. The same is true for this government. Now is the time to uproot it," Tejashwi said.

In the end, he said, "Everything went to Gujarat, nothing came to Bihar," claiming that the state (Bihar) got fewer allocations in the Union Budget.