Congress's special status offer to Bihar just politics: Arun Jaitley

BJP leader Arun Jaitley Monday said the Congress's assurance for the past two years to Bihar's ruling JD-U for special category status to the state was "more political" than being linked to economic necessity.

"The Congress in the last two years has held an olive branch to the Janata Dal-United that it was willing to consider the grant of special category status to Bihar," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said in a blog post.

In his 2013 budget speech, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had "indicated that the government would constitute a committee in order to favourably consider the grant of special category status to Bihar".

"This assurance was more political than being linked to the economic necessities of Bihar," Jaitley said.

"The intention of the UPA was to lead the JD-U up the garden path that the special category status to Bihar was indeed coming," he said, adding "I do not know how the astute leadership of the JD-U fell for this".