Nitish Kumar did not win on good governance, says Mayawati

LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has said that the landslide victory of Nitish Kumar-led coalition in Bihar is not due to good governance, but the 15-year misrule of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

“The perception that Nitish Kumar has returned to power on good governance is totally misplaced,” Mayawati told reporters here on Monday.

She said the undercurrent against Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan was so strong that people wanted to defeat them at all cost.

Denying that she was trying to ape her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, Mayawati asserted that providing good governance was her goal right from day one.

‘It is absolutely wrong to assume that taking the cue from Nitish Kumar, I have suddenly started devoting attention to issues related to good governance,’ she added.

“In fact, not much development work has taken place in Bihar during the Nitish rule,” she said, adding that it was the BSP which first got issue-based support of the people instead of caste and creed basis in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.”

The State, she claimed, had set a sort of record on front of law and order situation. The overall crime graph, she claimed, had declined. The conviction rate in cases related to atrocities against SC/ST was 55 percent in Uttar Pradesh as against that of national average of 32 percent. (ANI)