Prasad praises Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said it had been painful to see instability in Jharkhand for a long time after its creation before the Raghubar Das government steered the state into stability in the last five years.

Prasad said the BJP has emotional connectivity with Jharkhand and lamented that some forces in the state did not allow stability for their selfish reasons. The Raghubar Das ministry is the first government to complete a full term of five years after nine governments fell before completing their tenure between 2000 and 2014, including three stints of President's rule.

"The BJP has moral and emotional connectivity with Jharkhand. There had been the demand for a separate state and Jan Sangh/BJP supported it. But only when the BJP government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee came, Jharkhand was created, said Prasad.

Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000 and made a separate state when the Vajpayee government was in power at the center. Speaking after releasing the BJPs poll manifesto here in the presence of the cm and others, Prasad said that former chief minister Arjun Munda had done good work when he was the cm and made efforts for development, but some powers did not allow stable governments for their "political selfishness".

"Chief Minister Raghubar Das gave stability and development to Jharkhand in the last five years, a laudable feat," Prasad said. To drive home his point of developmental works happening in Jharkhand, Prasad referred to the United National Development Project (UNDP) that has rated Jharkhand as the number one state in the country in the index of reduction of poverty. He added that Jharkhand too has finished fourth in ease of doing business in the country. Being the IT minister, he said, the state also had done tremendous work in making availability of Aadhaar, digital governance, setting up BPOs in small cities and digital literacy and the state government has created job opportunities. He said that Jharkhand has enormous sporting talent, especially tribal children playing well in hockey and archery and the BJP manifesto has pledged to set up sports complex in every district for talent search.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also wants to make the country a powerful sporting nation in the world, he said. Prasad appreciated Das government for its initiation in helping the families of the personnel of the Army, BSF, and CRPF. Stating that the people bless those who work, Prasad said the BJP had won 70 per cent of its seats in Maharashtra and the pre-poll ally Shiv Sena had won seats on its (BJPs) "shoulder". Prasad expressed optimism that the people would bless Das ministry in the formation of an absolute government. The five-phase elections in Jharkhand are scheduled between November 30 and December 20 and counting will take place on December 23.