With corruption being widely perceived as a major stigma in Bihar’s NDA regime despite the signs of development, chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Tuesday told voters that the next big task on his mind was to seize corrupt people’s properties and open schools there.
“The poor and the small farmers were earlier unable to build their own houses. The situation now is different and much better. Now the big task I have to do is to confiscate the palatial houses of the corrupt people and open schools there,” said Mr Kumar in his campaign speech at Harnaut in his home district of Nalanda. It was Harnaut constituency from where 59-year-old Kumar had begun his legislative journey by winning in the 1985 Assembly polls after two failed efforts in 1977 and 1980. In February, Mr Kumar’s government enacted a much-awaited anti-corruption law that provides for confiscation of assets gained by public servants through corrupt practices and speedy trial of corruption cases in special courts. But no such property has so far been confiscated.
The RJD-LJP’s campaign has been harsh on Mr Kumar and his government primarily for the alleged rise in corruption and the leading Opposition alliance’s leaders have been constantly portraying the chief minister as “vinash purush” (man of destruction) as against the NDA-given popular soubriquet of “vikas purush” (man of development).
Seeking votes for education minister and JD(U) candidate Harinarayan Singh in Harnaut and Sunil Kumar of the JD(U) in nearby Biharsharif, Mr Kumar explained to a large crowd the plethora of developmental initiatives taken up by the JD(U)-BJP coalition government he led in the past five years. His emphasis was typically on the control over the reign of terror prevailing during the 15-year RJD regime and the pro-women programmes.