In what appears to be a very tough time ahead for the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the ruling party has got virtually split over the issue of budget provisions for Bihar. While chief minister Nitish Kumar praised the budget describing it as “balanced and positive”, his party colleague and JD-U’s national parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha summarily rejected it, terming it very “disappointing”.

Kushwaha who till recently was a part of the Union council of ministers failed to hide his annoyance and took to social media to express his disappointment for neglecting the interests of Bihar in the budget. “The Union Budget might be historic for the developed states but for Bihar it is disappointing,” Kushwaha tweeted today. He added that the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had “betrayed the people of Bihar by turning a deaf ear to the demand for special category status”.

Kushwaha along with the JD-U’s national president Lalan Singh had been constantly tweeting about seeking special category status to Bihar with the hashtag “desh ke pradhan, Bihar par dein dhyaan” (Head of the country must pay attention to the interests of Bihar). Just on the eve of the union budget too, Singh again had raised the party’s special status demand and urged the Prime Minister to look into it. He had claimed the per capita income of the people of Bihar could increase by five times if the state was granted special status.

The chief minister, on the other hand, welcomed the budget describing it as “positive”. He said the state governments would be getting an increased share in centre taxes from this year onwards which will lessen the financial troubles of the states. The chief minister also lauded the centre for initiating steps to speed up the country’s growth which got affected due to the Covid crisis in the past two years, and also for focusing its attention on creating basic infrastructure.

The main opposition RJD termed the budget as a “cruel joke” with the people of Bihar and alleged the chief minister had been silent just to be in power. “Now even the JD-U has begun saying that Bihar has got nothing from the budget, let aside considering its demand for granting special category status or special financial package. It’s time the chief minister should leave the BJP and think about the 13 crore people of Bihar,” the RJD said.