Patna — Janata Dal-United national general secretary Shyam Rajak on Sunday hit back at Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya over her objection to the new six-lane Kachchi Dargah-Raghopur-Bidupur Ganga bridge being named 'Nitish Setu' after former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, IANS reported. Rajak invoked the fodder and bitumen scams associated with the RJD leadership's tenure and said that if places were to be named after political figures, they could also be named after scandals associated with their tenure.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press

Acharya had demanded that the bridge be named after her father or as the 'Social Justice Bridge'. In a separate post reported by Daily Kiran, she alleged — as her claim — that not a single rupee from the Modi government contributed to the bridge's construction, asserting that the Asian Development Bank provided a loan of Rs 3,000 crore and a further Rs 2,000 crore came from Bihar's internal resources. Those funding claims are her allegations and were not independently verified in the reports.

Source: Daily Kiran

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary announced on November 13 that the bridge would be named 'Nitish Setu' and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would dedicate it to the nation during his visit to Bihar on November 21, PTI and Patna Press reported. The project, built at a cost of more than Rs 5,000 crore, is a 19.76-kilometre six-lane corridor connecting Patna and Vaishali districts and is expected to improve connectivity between north and south Bihar.

Source: Patna Press

Tejashwi slams, Chirag welcomes the name

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday criticised the naming, telling ANI that the ruling alliance could name the bridge as it pleased but that, in his words, naming it 'Nitish Setu' also signalled that Nitish Kumar had been 'finished off' politically. Union minister Chirag Paswan, by contrast, welcomed the decision on November 14, calling it a fitting tribute to Nitish Kumar's contribution to Bihar's road infrastructure, Daily Kiran reported.

Source: ANI via APNA MA TV

The bridge is scheduled to be dedicated by the Prime Minister on November 21. No change to the announced name had been reported at the time of publication.