Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said a separate body will be set up if his party forms the next government in Bihar for the development of the impoverished and flood-prone Seemanchal region.

The Leader of the Opposition in assembly also claimed that he had come up with the proposal while he was the deputy chief minister, but it met with disapproval from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

“The CM said that if we set up a Seemanchal Development Authority, all other regions will come up with similar demands. Nonetheless, if the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ led by my party wins the assembly polls due in less than a year, we will go ahead,” the RJD leader told reporters in Kishanganj district.

He also scoffed at the plans of Kumar, the JD(U) president who returned to the BJP-led NDA a year ago, to embark on a state-wide ‘Pragati Yatra’ from next week.

“The chief minister is on his way out. So, he should call his programme ‘Alvida Yatra’. Had he not declared five years ago that he was facing elections for the last time?” said Yadav, recalling Kumar’s speech at his final rally for the 2020 assembly polls.

Asked about the raging controversy over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on Ambedkar, the RJD leader alleged “the BJP is bereft of icons. Its parent body RSS had played no role in the Independence movement. Hence, the party’s leaders are full of disdain for historical figures like Gandhi and Nehru”.

“Now, they have started belittling Ambedkar. But, Shah and his ilk should remember that for us, Ambedkar is not just a fashion. He is our passion, our motivation and our source of inspiration,” said Yadav.

He added that the RJD has been opposing “anti-people moves like the Waqf Bill” and it will continue to register protests in Parliament as well as on the streets.

 

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