It’s 11.55 am and Krishna Sahu is sitting inside his house in Paschim Darwaza in Patna. Happy and excited, he appears to be waiting for something to happen. Suddenly someone knocks at his door. Sahu opens the door and “yes”, the visitor is none other than Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is standing there with folded hands, wearing a broad smile.
Behind and around him is a thick crowd of security personnel, men in khaki and men with still and video cameras. There is a lot of commotion but 50-year-old Sahu folds his hands calmly and invites the Chief Minister inside. Standing just inside the house, Nitish speaks to him for a minute and turns to go. But before leaving Nitish takes a selfie with Sahu and pastes a sticker on the door which reads, “Aage badhta rahe Bihar, phir ek bar Nitish Kumar.” The sticker also has a number 9006290062 asking people to give a missed call to associate with the JD(U).
It took only a few minutes at Sahu’s house near Rangoli Paints in Patna City but the petty trader was immediately the cynosure of all eyes as his was the first house to be visited by Nitish while kick-starting the JD(U)’s pre-poll campaign “Har Ghar Dastak.” The JD(U) leaders plan to meet three crore people across the State throughout this month. All JD(U) leaders, MPs, MlAs and Ministers as well as workers have been given the task of knocking on ten houses at least and meet the residents.
After meeting the Sahu family, Nitish moved ahead in the narrow lanes on foot to knock at other doors while the JD(U)’s poll song “Bihar mein bahar ho, Nitishe Kumar ho” played in the background.
The Har Ghar Dastak programme is said to be the brainchild of Nitish’s newly-hired poll strategist and media campaigner Prashant Kishor who shot to fame for inventing media campaigns for Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and then in the run up to the 2014 lok Sabha polls.
Asked how effective this ‘Har Ghar Dastak” programme was, Nitish said he has just started and it was up to the media and others to see its impact. “I am doing my job but you (media) are the observer. But I felt that people are appreciating this programme and welcoming it. It’s more successful than expected,” said a beaming Nitish while wiping sweat from his forehead in the rain-marred humid atmosphere. He said each party worker has been assigned to reach out to ten households each.
The excited residents shouted slogans in Nitish’s praise in a bid to attract him to their homes. A few in the lane suddenly shut their doors to wait for the knock. “I closed my door because he will knock at the closed door,” said another resident Prabhu Sahu.
Nitish began his campaign by paying obeisance at the temple of Bari Patan Devi, the presiding deity of Patna, and ended at Bargah Shah Takiya, Mitanghat, shrine in Patna City.
A similar campaign was launched at 10,000 places across the State by the JD(U) rank and file. The slogan for this campaign is: “Ek karyakarta - das dastak, ek sandesh - har ghar tak (Each worker to knock at ten doors and take the message to each house).
The questions each resident is asked are: Do you think Bihar has developed in the last one decadeIJ Has this development impacted all sections of societyIJ Has this development been scripted by Nitish KumarIJ Do you want to see him back in powerIJ After this, the party worker visiting the house takes a selfie with the house owner and a sticker is pasted on the door.
Taking a jibe at the campaign, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said: “While the CM was knocking on a few doors of the people, criminals were gate crashing each house and committing crimes. People are terrified as the situation has become worse than what it had been during lalu’s regime.”
Nitish Tweets:
Visited Paschim Darwaza area for Har Ghar Dastak today. Overwhelmed by people’s enthusiasm, love and support.