Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took an indirect dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi while voicing displeasure over the Centre’s “refusal” to grant special category status to the state.

In a free-wheeling conversation with journalists at Buxar district, which he toured as part of his state-wide mass outreach programme ‘Samadhan Yatra’, Kumar referred to Modi, formerly his Gujarat counterpart, coming from “a rich state” while accusing the latter of “being oblivious of the needs of poor provinces”.

“Bihar would have made unimaginable progress had our long-standing demand for a special status been accepted. We are making do with whatever resources we can marshal,” said the JD(U) leader who had pulled the plug on the alliance with the BJP less than six months ago.

The provision of granting special status had been in place to support the backward states, which must progress if the nation is to prosper, he said.

“One must not be indifferent to poorer states just because one comes from a rich state”, mentioned Kumar, with out mentioning Modi by title.

“His state has always been a developed one (hamesha se vikasit rajya raha hai). It has been so since the British era,” said the Bihar CM, once seen as a “secular” challenger to Modi, whose famed “Gujarat model” has typically been damned with faint reward by the socialist chief.

Kumar refused to touch upon the assembly hosted by his Telangana counterpart Okay Chandrashekar Rao, which is being seen as an try and type another entrance that will be against the BJP but in addition exclude the Congress, which is a constituent of the ruling “Mahagathbandhan” in Bihar.

He responded with a wry smile and a cryptic “sab baat aap logon ko pata hi hai (you people know it all)” to queries concerning the present trigger discover issued by his principal ally RJD towards its recalcitrant MLA Sudhaker Singh for feedback towards the CM.

Singh had landed the ruling coalition into a humiliation with frequent vituperations towards the JD(U) chief.

Replying to a different question on the row sparked by controversial remarks of one other RJD chief and training minister Chandra Shekhar concerning the “Ramcharitmanas”, Kumar mentioned, “it is highly improper. One must not say anything which is controversial”.

When identified that the minister has not retracted his assertion to this point, the JD(U) chief mentioned “I have already voiced my disapproval. So has his party….. religious beliefs are a matter of personal choice. One must not make it a matter of debate”.

He additionally sought to make gentle of remarks by one other RJD minister Surendra Yadav, which has drawn the BJP’s flak.

Yadav had on Tuesday alleged, in an indirect reference to the Pulwama terrorist strike, “the BJP has already engineered an attack on the armed forces to win an election. This time it may attack some other country”.

The chief minister mentioned, “I don’t take note of all issues that folks preserve saying. I’m at current busy with my tour of the state.”

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