AGENCIES, New Delhi: Ahead of the Assembly polls in Bihar later this year — elections are due in October-November 2020 — political strategist Prashant Kishor, who was expelled from the JD(U) by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has launched a campaign to reach out to young people across the state and build a movement called Bihar ki Baat, that he said, would push for accelerating development in Bihar. In the process, Kishor took potshots at his one-time mentor Nitish Kumar.
Kishor questioned the popular perception that Nitish Kumar had put Bihar back on the development track. Prashant Kishor said Bihar hadn’t moved on most indices since 2005 when Kumar first became the state’s chief minister.
Kishor linked this perception about Nitish Kumar to the years that Bihar was ruled by Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Lalu Yadav. So when a chief minister came in 2005 who was doing some development, that appeared to have become the gold standard, he said.
But this, he said, shouldn’t be good enough. The question to ask is where does Bihar stand vis-a-vis Maharashtra or Haryana. Bihar needs someone who dreams about moving Bihar into the top 10 states on, say per capita income and has the blueprint.
Prashant Kishor announced the launch of Bihar ki Baat, a campaign to identify people across the 8,800 panchayats in the state who had a similar aspiration for the state. “My effort is medium to long term,” Prashant Kishor, who has strategised with political parties to help them win elections, said. He has targeted to get 10 lakh volunteers to enrol till March to build a ‘new Bihar’.
