The iron is hot! Will Bihar get special state status, will Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's wish come true?
Bihar's next assembly elections are still a year and a half away, but its chessboard has already started laying before the Lok Sabha polls. The NDA could not win all 40 seats in Bihar, but the slogan of crossing 200 this time began to rise for the assembly elections. With Nitish Kumar joining the National Democratic Alliance, there were speculations that the next deal would be on granting special status to Bihar. Meanwhile, a new government has been formed at the Center and the occasion is the Union Budget, so the question is, is it time for Bihar to place some big orders from Delhi? Will Bihar get special status again? Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's desire and demand for many years. It is certain that Nitish Kumar will become an unforgettable personality in the history of Bihar. Special status has been an old staple of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's politics. He has been raising his voice for almost two decades. But his wish could not be fulfilled. However, Nitish is well aware that the chances of his demand being fulfilled sooner or later are very low in future. So, he and the people of Bihar are more hopeful this time than any other time. Because when Jharkhand became a separate state in 2000, Bihar was only left to be proud of its cultural heritage. The basis of Bihar's economic prosperity was taken away from it. But this is a political compulsion. Owing to backwardness, poverty and horrors of floods, migration from the state began to increase again. When did you raise the special status claim? After 2000 in Bihar, a large part of the people of the state preferred Nitish Kumar's politics to RJD and Lalu Prasad Yadav. In his vision there was a new hope for the future of Bihar. Then Nitish Kumar raised the slogan of good governance and prosperity. In this respect, the 2005 assembly elections can be considered as the most revolutionary election. Subsequently, Bihar Election Observer KJ Rao changed the state's election picture. He used electronic voting machines for the first time in Bihar Assembly elections and deployed Rapid Action Force at every booth. He made security arrangements during polling by visiting the booths in each village by riding a motorcycle on footpaths. Result- Change of power in Bihar. Lalu Prasad Yadav went and Nitish Kumar came to power. In 2005, when Nitish was sworn in as Chief Minister for the first time, Nitish Kumar officially raised the demand for special status. He argued in the Assembly that after the formation of Jharkhand, Bihar had only experienced poverty and backwardness, so by granting special status to the state, it could compensate for its loss and bring it on the path of development. This address of Nitish Kumar became a huge basis for his popularity across the state. With this claim he was called the greatest hero of Bihar. People of this state started dreaming that if Nitishkumar's demands are accepted then the state will be changed. When Chief Minister Nitish Kumar raised this demand, the IMU coalition government was in the middle. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. Nitish Kumar formed the government in Bihar in alliance with the BJP. Nitish Kumar expressed regret that his demand was ignored by the UPA government. Nitish's second term and special claim: After this, Nitish Kumar regained the reins of Bihar in the 2010 assembly elections. Currently UPA 2 is ruling at the centre. Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister again. Nitish Kumar was adamant about the special status demand. In November 2012, he made a grand announcement of his demand at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna. After this, in March 2013, at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, he also attacked the central Manmohan Singh government over his demand. Accepting our demand, the Raghuram Rajan Committee for Economic Reforms was set up in 2007, but even after the report was released in 2013, the central government did nothing. Nitish Kumar's complaint about granting special status to Bihar is not limited to the UPA government. Even after the change of government in the center in 2014, he has made several demands. Nitish Kumar had complained that he had written a letter to the central government in May 2017 regarding the granting of special state status. After this, in 2023, a formal proposal for special state status was passed in the Bihar cabinet as well. In the letter he wrote then, considering the welfare of the people of Bihar, he requested the central government to grant special state status immediately. Along with Nitish's demand, Tejashwi Yadav's demand for special status for Bihar is not only Nitish Kumar. If he is the leader of this campaign, all the political forces of the state are ready to support him without hesitation. It has become a sensitive issue for the government. This has been a demand for the past 19 years. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar and his party JD(U) formed a power alliance with RJD twice. During this period, Tejashwi and his entire party showed unity in full support of special status. Bihar's BJP unit is also already with Nitish's demand. In this case, former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejaswi Yadav has teased that if Bihar is a king maker, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should ask the Central Government for special state status. On the other hand, leaders are busy creating the situation in Bihar. A special status slogan is raised on each platform. All of Bihar believes that the iron is hot and it is time to demand special statehood for Bihar.