Patna: Former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today ascribed Bihar’s 17.5 per cent growth rate in the last fiscal, according to a NITI Ayog report, to Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was the chief minister for nine months during 2014-15. Modi did not give credit for the success to Nitish Kumar who preceded and succeeded Manjhi to the top post.
“Though we (BJP) maintain that Bihar’s growth story suffered since collapse of our alliance with the JD(U) about two and half a years ago as reflected in decline by 3.65 per cent in the growth rate at 17.05 in 2013-14 from 20.70 per cent in 2012-13, but there has been slight improvement in the last fiscal the credit for which goes to Manjhi and not Nitish Kumar,” he said in a statement.
Manjhi was the chief minister for nine months in 2014-15 and so he deserves credit for negligible growth rate of 0.55 in the last fiscal, Modi explained. He said that the NITI Ayog report has corroborated the BJP’s stand that the development activities had come to a grinding halt in Bihar and growth rate taking a knock ever since the alliance between the saffron party and the JD(U) collapsed in June 2013.
It may be recalled that Modi was the deputy chief minister in the erstwhile NDA government and had helmed the finance department for eight years since 2005.
