Just a month after joining the JD(U), Prashant Kishor has been appointed as national vice president of the party. With this elevation PK, he is quite popular with his abbreviation in political circles, is only next to national president Nitish Kumar.
The official statement regarding PK’s appointment was issued on Tuesday by the party’s secretary general KC Tyagi who expressed confidence that his experience and expertise will take the party to a new height.
Kishor, 41, had formally joined the JD(U) on September 16 at the party’s State executive committee meeting here. After grabbing limelight following huge victory of mahagathbandhan, which involved the JD(U) and the RJD apart from others, he was keeping a low profile. The victory of 2015 Assembly election was largely credited to the poll strategy engineered by Kishore who in 2014 general election had reportedly crafted the strategy for Narendra Modi.
With his elevation as JD(U) national vice president Kishor is now the most powerful leader of the party only after Nitish, who is supposed to have clipped the wings of many other leaders in the party who were supposed to be his close confidents. It is also expected that Kishor will have his say in all the top level deliberations with other parties in the NDA and in the decision making his inputs and suggestions would be given weightage by the party supremo.
There had been wild speculations about his role in the party after he joined the JD(U) last month. There were reports that he might contest Lok Sabha polls from Buxar constituency, his hometown, and some suggested he might be made a powerful Minister. But Nitish seemed to have proved all those speculations wrong.
In a recent interview to a senior TV journalist and answering the questions of the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Kishor said he would not move out of Bihar for the next 10 years.
Avoiding a direct reply to the possible poll outcome in 2019, Kishor said he would not make a prediction but claimed that BJP was still in lead position.