Will Nitish Kumar walk the talk on special status for Bihar: Jairam Ramesh

Hours after BJP ally JD(U) passed a resolution reiterating its demand for special category status for Bihar, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday, 29 June, asked if chief minister Nitish Kumar would actually walk the talk on the issue.

He also questioned NDA partner Telugu Desam Party for not pressing for the special category status for Andhra Pradesh.

"The JD(U) has just passed a resolution reiterating the demand for special category status and central assistance to Bihar. Will the CM summon the courage to have the state cabinet also pass such a resolution. Will the CM of Bihar walk the talk?" Ramesh said in a post on X in Hindi.

"And what about TDP in its new innings? Why has it not yet passed such a resolution for Andhra Pradesh, a promise emphasised by the non-biological PM in the holy city of Tirupati on 30 April 2014," he said.

The JD(U) on Saturday appointed Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha as its working president and urged the Centre to consider either special category status or special package for Bihar, underlining the party's important role in the formation of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

The JD(U)'s decision to include a special package as an alternative to its historical push for special category status for Bihar marked a pragmatic climbdown as the Modi government had cited the 14th Finance Commission's report to rule out special category status for any more states.

The party's national executive meeting chaired by its president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar also flagged price rise and unemployment as "burning issues", as its political resolution expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government would take more effective steps to handle them.

The resolution called for an extensive probe into paper leak cases.