CM uses blog to minimise verdict impact

Bihar is hardly a state where you would expect politicians to reach out to voters through the web. But, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has done just that: he revived his blog to re-emphasise his development agenda. “I am writing to you after a long gap,” Kumar wrote in his blog three months after his last post. “As I have always said, the coming election is going to be different from the ones in the past in more ways than one. I think it is going to be a “make-or-mar” election for the state.”

Without referring to the Ayodhya verdict, Kumar sought to re-emphasise that “for the first time in the electoral history of the state, development has emerged as a key factor in the polls this time… I am resolute we have to turn Bihar into a developed state by 2015.”

Kumar said: “We shall create a Bihar where being called a Bihari will be a matter of pride. Being a Bihari henceforth will be a matter of maan (pride) and not apmaan (humiliation).”

Kumar’s sought to counter the rivals in Bihar who expect his Janata Dal (United) to worry about the judgment’s impact on the state polls.

“Each one of you have to decide whether you want the process of development to continue after the polls or want to go back to the days when progress was sacrificed at the altar of politics of caste, community and religion,” he said in Monday’s blogspot entry.

The CM, who has often crossed swords with alliance partner, the BJP, to prevent it from raking up any religious issue, said, “I had made a promise to the people of Bihar that I would not come back to seek their votes if I would not succeed in bringing changes.”

“I have little hesitation in saying changes are visible across the state now. This is why I have come back … to seek another term for our government….”