Tejashwi slams 20 years of NDA rule in Bihar, BJP hits back

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Monday launched a sharp attack on the NDA govt, posing 12 questions on its performance during the last 20 years under CM Nitish Kumar and 11 years at the Centre under PM Narendra Modi, while BJP leaders hit back citing achievements in infrastructure, food processing, industry and jobs.Tejashwi alleged that Bihar had been reduced to “the main centre of unemployment, migration and poverty”. “Despite the Nitish-Modi government being in power for 20 years in Bihar and 11 years at the Centre, the NDA government has made Bihar the main centre of unemployment, migration and poverty. It is not me but the Niti Aayog report is saying this year after year. Even after the era of technology, liberalisation and AI, Bihar’s per capita income in the last 20 years is less than the world’s poorest African countries Uganda and Rwanda,” he said.He also questioned the lack of food processing industries. “The eight crore youth of Bihar want to ask CM Nitish that despite the fact that Bihar produces so much of many famous grains, fruits, vegetables like banana, corn, makhana, rice, sugarcane, potato, litchi, mango etc., why have food processing industries related to all these not been set up in Bihar for 20 years and why can't they be set up? The government of 20 years should answer?” he asked.Reacting to Tejashwi’s allegations, deputy CM Samrat Choudhary said the per capita income had risen sharply. “The per capita income was Rs 6,000 during their regime, but it has increased up to Rs 67,000 under NDA rule in Bihar,” he said. Taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent Bihar yatra, he added, “The 55-year-old ‘child’ returned after touring 13,000 kms on the roads, but he did not see the rapid infrastructural development of this state.”Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said Tejashwi did not understand the difference between development and anarchy. “Tejashwi probably does not know that the NDA govt running at the Centre has provided more than Rs 14 lakh crores for the development and progress of Bihar in the last 10 years. He should tell how much fund was received during the 2004–14 UPA government,” he said.Rai added that Bihar had achieved notable progress in food processing. “In the last 11 years under PM Modi and 20 years under CM Nitish Kumar, the NDA govt has started 10,000+ processing units based on makhana, litchi, banana, mango, rice etc. With an investment of more than Rs 2,000 crores and modern testing labs, local products are now reaching the global market. In the Union Budget 2025-26, an announcement has been made to open a food processing unit and an institute associated with it in Bihar,” he said.He highlighted industrial and employment growth, claiming that 50 lakh youth had been given jobs in the last five years with a target of one crore in the next five. “Today 56 industrial areas and 12 parks are ready in Bihar. A petrochemical hub is coming up in Begusarai, a 1320 MW power plant in Buxar, work is going on for 20+ ethanol plants, while in the last 3 years, investment proposals worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore have come to Bihar under CM Nitish Kumar,” Rai added.