Nitish Kumar seeks special status for Bihar-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said that his political party would support whoever supports special status for Bihar . Addressing a mass gathering here, Kumar said that Bihar , which has 40 Lok Sabha seats, would play a major role in deciding who comes to power next. "Whoever supports special status for Bihar , we will support them at the Centre," he said amid a thumping applause. Kumar's Janata Dal (United), which is a member of the NDA coalition, presently has 22 Lok Sabha MPs and governs Bihar in partnership with BJP. The Congress-led UPA Government appears to be in trouble as of now following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's declaration that the Trinamool Congress would be pulling out of the UPA Government. The Congress Core Group met at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's official 7, Race Course Road residence in New Delhi earlier today to decide on the next step in wake of the TMC withdrawal from the ruling UPA Government. Trinamool Congress, the second biggest constituent of the UPA with 19 MPs, dealt a major blow to the Manmohan Singh Government when it decided to withdraw its support on the issue of petroleum price hike, FDI in retail and corruption. The TMC's decision brings the UPA's effective strength in the 545-seat Lok Sabha from 273 to 254, which is slightly below the halfway mark. This would make the Congress-led UPA Government more dependent on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), both of which extend outside legislative support to the UPA regime.

Bihar CM Nitish ready to back any party supporting special status for Bihar