BJP slams state govt over INDIA bloc panel

{ CALLS IT ‘A POLITICAL GIFT’

- Raj Kumar

RANCHI: The BJP has termed the Jharkhand State Coordination Committee — a nine-member panel comprising representatives of INDIA bloc constituents and granted the rank and perks of cabinet ministers —as a ‘political gift scheme’, alleging that it has held only one formal meeting since its formation in 2022.

“This committee was formed in the name of coordination in development works, but the reality is that it has merely become a political gift scheme to oblige the leaders of the ruling parties by giving them the status of minister of state,” said BJP state spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo in a press statement on Tuesday.

Shahdeo said the committee was constituted at the end of 2022 but has had only one formal meeting. “This committee was formed at the end of 2022 with great purpose and claims. But today, despite more than two and a half years having passed, only one formal meeting of the committee has been held — that, too, on June 10, 2023. There has been no meeting in the year 2024, and now in 2025,” Shahdeo said.

The BJP spokesperson questioned the justification for the committee's existence.