A week after holding a joint press conference for announcing the seat-sharing formula for the 24 Legislative Council seats in Bihar going to polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United), the two key constituents in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state, sparred on Monday over the issue of special status for the state.

State BJP president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, in a Facebook post, countered JD(U)’s demand for the special status and alleged that the “state government is not able to develop Bihar because of its failures whereas the central government is supporting them at every step.”

JD(U) hit back, reminding him “that his party is also part of the government”.

It all began when a few days back when JD(U) national president and Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, during the discussion on the President’s address in Parliament, once again raised the demand of special status for Bihar. He was promptly countered by Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

In his FB post, Jaiswal wrote, “Maharashtra’s population is only one crore more than Bihar, yet Bihar gets ₹31,000 crore more than Maharashtra from central resources. Bengal is also a backward state like Bihar, but Bihar gets ₹21,000 crore more than that.”

“State like Bihar has benefited the most from GST. Earlier, the state in which industries were established used to earn separately. Now a large part of these earnings is distributed by the consumers in the state, due to which Bihar has got an additional benefit of ₹20,000 crore,” he said.

Jaiswal also stressed the need for industrialisation. “The government will have to promote industries at all costs. Till we do not promote new industries by bringing industrial policies, we will neither be able to give employment nor will the income of Bihar increase,” he said. “The mentality of considering industrialists as villains will not leave Bihar anywhere.”

In response, JD(U)’s Bashistha Narain Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member, advised its ally BJP not to fudge figures. “BJP is equal partner in government. It’s not run alone by JD (U). As far as industrialisation is concerned, industry minister Shahnawaz Husain (BJP) will be able to tell better. He himself has said that huge investments are in pipeline,” Singh said.