Updated: October 19, 2020 8:30:12 am
This was supposed to be the election where Prashant Kishor made his way from the back room to the front line.
This was supposed to be the election where Prashant Kishor made his way from the back room to the front line. Named squarely at the top as vice president of JD (U) by Nitish Kumar after the 2015 elections, the electoral strategist seemed ready to take another leap.
A year and a half later, Kishor is out of place and out of sight. After fighting Nitish, he had started an apolitical forum called “Baat Bihar Ki”, promising to develop leadership from the grassroots.
But now, the man who built his reputation by adapting disparate parties for the digital age hasn’t even tweeted in Bihar polls so far. His last tweet was in July, due to the Covid scare.
However, Patna is excited by reports that Kishor is on the move again, meeting with leaders of smaller parties like the RLSP, after trying his hand at the Mahagathbandhan. JD (U) sees Kishor’s hand in LJP chief Chirag Paswan’s decision to leave the NDA.
A high-ranking JD (U) leader said that Kishor had made it clear to Chirag that this was the last election in which the previous generation of socialists would dominate the state and therefore he should bet big. LJP spokesperson Ashraf Ansari dismissed this as a figment of the imagination.
There are those who say that Kishor’s success lies in choosing the winning side, and that he has failed to redeem the parties that were sunk, such as Congress and the Samajwadi Party in the 2017 UP polls. However, others say it is too early to rule out Kishor and are looking forward to 2025.
A source close to Kishor denied he was off the scene. “Due to Covid we have not started the part on the ground, but digitally Baat Bihar Ki is the largest political page, with more than 20 lakh followers”
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and keep up to date with the latest headlines
For the latest election news, download the Indian Express app.
.
