Patna, April 5 RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav alleged on Sunday that Bihar is lagging behind other states in the country in all development indices, but the ruling NDA has been trying to "brush aside its 21 years of failure" by blaming the opposition.
Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, also challenged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his two deputies for a public debate on the state's backwardness, "provided they have the moral courage and competence".
Taking a dig at Yadav's remarks, JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar said that the people of Bihar "discarded him" in the assembly elections, and claimed, "Nobody pays attention to his statements anymore."
"Even after 21 years of the NDA rule, which includes 12 years of 'double-engine' government, Bihar continues to rank at the bottom in most social, human, and economic indicators," Yadav wrote in his post on X.
He said that the "ineffective and incompetent" government blames the opposition for everything to "hide its own failures" resulting from "flawed policies and hollow promises".
"Yet, those in power feel insulted when Bihar is called the most backward and poorest state," the RJD leader said.
Yadav was referring to the controversy surrounding his remarks in Kerala, where he described Bihar as "among the poorest states of India".
In his post on the social media platform, the RJD leader listed numerous parameters to establish that "Bihar is lagging behind the national average".
These parameters pertain to literacy rate, per capita income, crime rate, migration, corruption, unemployment, multidimensional poverty, pollution, cash-deposit ratio, among others.
The leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly charged the Nitish Kumar government with "misusing" the Election Commission and the administrative machinery during polls to gain favourable outcomes, and also making "false electoral promises to cover up its failures".
Rejecting the allegations, the JD(U) MLC said, "He (Tejashwi) took his father's message to Kerala. He should also speak about the law and order situation that prevailed during his parents' rule."
Responding to his debate challenge, the JD(U) leader urged Yadav to "decide a place and time of his choice".
"Our party will authorise an individual to debate with Tejashwi Yadav on per capita income, overall growth in the state and crime. He should first decide a time and place for the debate," he added.
BJP spokesperson Niraj Kumar claimed that Tejashwi Yadav's habit is to "present wrong facts through his X handle".
"People have given him a message to carry out self-evaluation while in opposition, and he should do it," the BJP leader said.
He claimed that Bihar's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is better than that of other states in India.
