Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being welcomed with a garland by JD-U workers during election meeting in Kalyanpur at Samastipur. (Press Trust of India photo)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today alleged that the BJP-led coalition at the Centre will abolish reservation for OBCs, SC and STs if it win assembly elections in Bihar as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had called for review of the reservation policy.
"The RSS chief has publicly called for review of the reservation policy which the BJP-led coalition at the Centre may scrap if NDA gets power in Bihar," Mr Kumar alleged at an election rally in Parbatta Assembly constituency in Khagaria district.
The victory of the BJP-led alliance will embolden NDA to toe the RSS line and scrap the existing reservation policy, he alleged.
Mr Kumar promised 35 per cent reservation to women in government jobs if his alliance (JDU-RJD-Cong) comes back to power at the hustings.
He also took umbrage to BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular for ridiculing him on his Rs 2.70 lakh crore vision for development of the state over next five years if his own alliance wins the election.
"You don't worry about how we will raise resources. We have enough sources of revenue to fulfil aspirations of the people on development front," Mr Kumar said.
The Chief Minister said he has charted out the vision document after taking into account various sources from which revenues will be raised in coming years and not from any dole by anybody, he said referring to the Centre.
The Prime Minister had ridiculed Mr Kumar's vision document last month and asked him from where he will raise funds to implement his development agenda.
The senior JD-U leader, who launched the secular alliance's campaign yesterday, flayed the NDA government for "non-fulfilment" of promises, including bringing back black money from foreign shores, and asked the Prime Minister what happened to his poll promise to distribute Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakh cash into bank account of every individual.
Mr Kumar also slammed the 'Gujarat Model' of development, a plank on which Mr Modi had won the Lok Sabha poll last year, and alleged the pitiable condition of women and prevalence of unemployment in the PM's native state tell a different story compared to the claims made about development there.
In all, the Chief Minister addressed five election meetings during the day.