There is a phrase: diamond cuts diamond. Prashant Kishor was like that diamond which crushed all the opponents of Narendra Modi in May 2014 poll publicity, Nitish Kumar included. Now that diamond is in possession of the Bihar Chief Minister who is all set to use him as a weapon to blunt the BJP attack in the coming Assembly election.
Taking a cue from the BJP, which unleashed an aggressive campaign and media blitzkrieg during the last lok Sabha polls, the JD(U), along with RJD and Congress, is gearing up to take the saffron party head on by using almost the same multi-pronged campaign to attract the masses. The Bihar@2025 and ‘Badh Chala Bihar’ initiative unveiled by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday is seen as part of that publicity blitz.
Interestingly, the JD(U)’s campaign is being anchored by the same Kishor who was Modi’s backroom strategist and credited to invent popular programmes like ‘Chai pe charcha’ and 3D hologram that definitely gave edge to BJP and heightened the image of Modi. Kishor, a Bihar native and a former UN Mission chief in Africa, who established Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), has joined Nitish and has started work for his image building in the run-up to the Assembly election in winter.
The campaign Bihar@2025 which aims to reach 4 crore people spread over 40,000 villages in Bihar and also to reach the non-resident Biharis in India and world has unmistakable signature of Kishor who has field his brigade comprising IIT and IIM alumnus to spearhead the campaign in order to create a favourable atmosphere in the State in the next three months.
The CAG team comprises over 40 young professionals and soon hundreds of volunteers would be recruited to take out the campaign to the countryside. Some team members were seen on Monday at the launch of the ‘Badh chala Bihar’ initiative, of which the blueprint had been presented by Kishor to Nitish a fortnight back in New Delhi. Nitish was waiting for the time when he was being declared CM face by the alliance partners only then to unveil this project.
Kishor advised the CM to set up a war room and make urgent reforms in JD(U)’s media section. The war room will be taken care by senior leaders KC Tyagi, Harivansh and Pawan K Varma, all Rajya Sabha members. Kishor also held an interaction with three party spokesmen Dr Ajay Alok, Nihora Prasad Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Prasad and discussed with them various issues.
Kishor advised them to study the charges leveled by the Opposition and take a stand as per the principles of the party and only then issue statements. He also asked them to have interaction among themselves on daily basis and only that spokesman issue statement that has deep study of the subject concerned.
The CAG has advised JD(U) that it should ask public mandate on the basis of the works done by Nitish during the last ten years and ask the public to judge on the basis of the performance as to who is the most suited person to rule. The team said that the party should not dole out poll promises.
The Bihar@2025 campaign would veer around the works done by Nitish during 2005-2015 and go for an aggressive publicity to showcase those works to attract and impress the voters. Asked if the vision document to be prepared on the basis of the inputs and suggestions collected from the people would be the crux of the JD(U)’s poll manifesto, the Chief Minister reacted, “What is wrong with itIJ” He even said that all political parties are free to use this vision document in their manifestoes.