All Bihar political parties in support of special status demand: Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that for his demand for special status for Bihar, he has been receiving support from all political parties.

"We have been demanding special status for Bihar since 2006. The report of 14th Finance Commission indicated that special status is not required so we are pursuing the matter and will put it forward before the 15th Finance Commission," Nitish Kumar said while addressing a 'Lok Samvad' programme here.

"All parties in the state have supported the demand for special status for Bihar. We will keep forward our demand as we have our own logic in demanding special status," he added.

Talking about the meeting of President Ram Nath Kovind and Janata Dal (United) leader Ashok Choudhary at Rashtrapati Bhavan last week to discuss the issue, Nitish Kumar said to reports that the President reacted positively to the discussion.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had put forth the demand for granting Special Status to his state on June 17.

Regarding the special status issue, Nitish claimed that this was necessary, as Bihar lagged behind on several key areas of human development like per capita income, education, health, electricity, institutional finance and others.

(With inputs from ANI)