Nitish Kumar Faces Criticism Over Appointments
The opposition's criticism of Nitish Kumar's leadership and the state's economy has sparked a heated debate, with the Congress party citing reports and data to support their claims of misrule and poor governance. The controversy is likely to continue in the run-up to the Assembly elections, with the JDU and NDA allies defending their record and the opposition pushing for change.
Nitish Kumar's integrity has been defended by JDU spokesman Neeraj Kumar amid opposition criticism over recent appointments to Bihar's government commissions and religious trusts, with concerns raised about loyalty to the party leadership and allegations of misrule by the BJP-JD(U) alliance.
The Congress party has launched a campaign to expose the alleged misrule of the BJP-JD(U) alliance in Bihar, citing a report by CARE Ratings that ranked Bihar last among 17 large Indian states on key development indicators. The report highlighted Bihar's poor performance in education, health, infrastructure, and economic activity, among other areas. Congress spokesperson Prem Chand Mishra alleged that corruption and poor governance are to blame for the state's decline.
Bihar's economy under CM Nitish Kumar's leadership has shown mixed results, with irregular growth rates in the early 2000s and a decline in growth rate in subsequent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the economy has shown a steady growth rate of 5.51% on average from FY 2013 to FY 2024. Kumar has credited himself and his party for pulling the state out of the "Jungle Raj" era, but critics argue that the state's economy still has a long way to go.
The controversy surrounding the appointments and the state's economy is likely to be a major issue in the upcoming Assembly elections, with the Congress party aiming to build a data-backed campaign against the NDA using central and global institutional reports as ammunition. The JDU has maintained that all appointments were made after consultations with NDA allies and vetted by the chief minister, but the opposition remains skeptical.