Patna,(BiharTimes): Rejecting the report that he was coming closer to the Congress party Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Tuesday that there should be no politics in the name of granting special category status to Bihar.

Reacting to the media reports from New Delhi that the Centre may grant special category status to Bihar the chief minister said he was hopeful that Bihar would get the special category status.

“The fact is very much there. It will compel the Centre to take a decision in this regard,” he told reporters in Patna. “There is strength in our logic that the Centre should grant special status to Bihar in view of its economic backwardness.”

Nitish said he had toured all the places and fought for the special status. Now his stand is being vindicated.

The chief minister, however, downplayed reports which claimed the Centre may change the criteria for grant of special status to the states to accommodate Bihar’s aspiration before the next general elections.

Nitish described the reports in this regard as consistent with the Centre’s stand and added that Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had spoken about revisiting the criteria for special status in his budget speech last month.

Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Yadav dismissed all talks of Bihar getting special category status by stating that it is just a shagufa of Nitish Kumar. He wants to distract the attention of the people from the real problems. Since he is losing the grip he is raising a different issue to bluff the people, the RJD leader added.