PATNA: Similarities between his arch rival Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar surfaced on Thursday when Kumar promised a ban on the sale of liquor in Bihar if voted back to office in the assembly elections due in September-October. Kumar was responding to a demand raised by 1,000-odd women who had come from far-flung villages to attend a workshop in Patna.

READ ALSO: If re-elected, I will ban liquor, says Nitish

Modi, despite his pro-business outlook, stayed with prohibition in Gujarat, and it did not in the least affect his political hold on the state. Also, Kumar has retained the services of techie Prashant Kishore who had mounted a high-glitz campaign that was criticized by Kumar himself for being expensive and personality-oriented.

Now the same man has put in place a similar drive for Kumar, which is a resounding echo of Modi's 2014 campaign. Interestingly, Kumar's claims of having boosted Bihar's revenue were derived significantly from better excise collection through increased sale of liquor.

Other politicians who have gained politically from prohibition are Bansi Lal in Haryana and NT Rama Rao on Andhra Pradesh.

Nitish had returned to his seat after delivering a speech when the women, representatives of self-help groups in various villages, raised their demand for a ban on the sale of liquor. Nitish then went back to the dais. "Your demand is genuine. I promise you I'll ban liquor if voted back to power," he said to loud applause from the gathering at the S K Memorial Hall.

The workshop — 'Gram Vaarta' or village dialogue — was organized jointly by the state government and the UK government's Department for International Development to spread awareness about the importance of improving health and nutritional status.

Official sources said the state government would suffer a revenue loss of about Rs 4,000 crore each year if the sale of liquor was banned. "The state generated Rs 3,250 crore as excise duty from the sale of liquor in the past financial year and has fixed a target of raising Rs 4,000 crore as excise duty from liquor sale in the current financial year," a senior official said. He said the revenue generated from the sale of liquor accounted for 3.5% of the state budget of Rs 1,20,000 crore for 2015-16.

The sources said excise and registration were the two highest revenue-earning departments of the state government. "If the CM wants to implement a ban on liquor, he'll have to think of generating this amount of revenue from another source or curtail the government's expenditure," another official said.

