Will set up factories, end joblessness: Tejashwi

INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday vowed to make Bihar a leading state in the country by attracting investment and setting up factories if the opposition coalition was voted to power.

Addressing successive rallies in Parbatta and Alauli in Khagaria district and Shahpur in Bhojpur, Yadav said he was contesting the elections not merely to form a government but to rebuild the state.

“We need to make Bihar number one, for which there is a need to bring investments, promote education and ensure proper health facilities,” he said.

Yadav criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming the senior BJP leader had said factories could not be set up in Bihar due to a lack of land. “We will set up factories in the state and bring investment to take Bihar on the development trajectory,” he said.

The RJD leader alleged that the government led by PM Modi had not even set up a needle factory in Bihar. “He comes here only to defraud the people of the state. The PM sets up factories in Gujarat and seeks votes in Bihar,” he charged.

Taking on the prohibition policy of the Nitish Kumar government, Yadav claimed the restrictions on liquor sales existed only in name. “While the administration allows home delivery of liquor for affluent sections of society, the poor, including women, are harassed through late-night raids,” he said, referring to allegations of seized alcohol disappearing from police custody.

He accused Modi of “hijacking” Nitish Kumar, asserting that the CM was “incapable of leading Bihar anymore”.

Yadav announced that if the INDIA bloc came to power, a law would be enacted within 20 days to provide a government job to every family, with recruitments completed in 20 months. “I can’t see the pain of unemployed degree holders,” he said.

Yadav reiterated his pledge to regularise the services of contractual workers and to give women an annual sum of Rs 30,000 in a single instalment.