‘No matter how hard he tries, no room for Nitish in GA’

As the high-decibel campaigning for the first phase of Bihar assembly polls came to an end, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who also held a rally in Vaishali district, spoke on a range of poll-related issues. Edited excerpts of his interview with Saubhadra Chatterji:

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What are the major planks for the Grand Alliance in the Bihar polls?

I think the young people are worried about lack of employment, migration, price rise and implementation of (revised) minimum wages in Bihar. These are big issues for us. The NDA government's system has also failed in Bihar. It has not done anything for poor of the state.

For political purposes, the government talks about backward castes, SC, ST and EBC (Extreme Backward Classes). But no work has been done for them by the government, except giving ₹10,000 (loan to women) right before elections...In Congress-ruled states, the government is giving ₹2,000 per month. So, in these states, women are getting up to ₹24,000 annually. In Bihar, the government is trying to get votes by giving much less.

How can you give government jobs to every family in Bihar, as you have promised to?

Bihar needs employment. That is why we have promised to give every household a government job. But this is not going to happen in a day. Definitely, it will take sometime but we will soon be able to fill up the current vacancies. We will be able to create jobs.

Both PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have attacked the Mahagathbandhan over “Jungle raj’, referring to law and order situation when RJD was in power.