Published 18:48 IST, November 16th 2020

Prashant Kishor breaks four-month silence; congratulates 'BJP-nominated' CM Nitish Kumar

Breaking his media silence after 4 months, ex-JDU Vice-President Prashant Kishor on Monday, congratulated Nitish Kumar on being sworn-in as Chief Minister

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Breaking his media silence after 4 months, ex-JDU Vice-President Prashant Kishor on Monday, congratulated Nitish Kumar on being sworn-in as Chief Minister for seventh time. Terming Nitish Kumar as a 'BJP-minated CM', poll strategist said that Bihar must brace itself for 'years of lacklustre governance'. Kishor was dubiously silent throughout Bihar poll campaign, with speculations rife that he h aided LJP chief Chirag Paswan's decision to split from NDA.

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Kishor's 'Baat Bihar Ki'

Days after being expelled from JDU for 'anti-party activities', Kishor launched his 'Baat Bihar ki' campaign where he  slammed CM Nitish Kumar for standing with "Godse supporters". Slamming Modi-Shah duo a number of times during his anuncement, Kishor went on to say that 'Twitter is t a luxury' that only "Gujarat people" can use. Ironically, Kishor was BJP's poll strategist during 2014 Lok Sabha and spearheed 'Ab ki Baar Modi Sarkar' campaign which led to 'Modi wave'.

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While he promised to work on 'grass-level' leership in Bihar, leing to Bihar polls, since on-set of Coronavirus, Kishor was conspicuously absent and silent on Twitter. While Nitish Kumar h hinted at Kishor's hand behind Paswan's move to split from NDA - hurting his party's campaign on 32 seats, Paswan himself denied this. Kishor, who has a tendency to pick 'winning side' in poll campaigns, is currently involved in DMK chief M K Stalin's maiden CM campaign for Tamil Nu polls and Mamata Banerjee's re-election bid in Bengal polls.

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Prashant Kishor and Bihar

Prashant Kishor - who has been credited for engineering Mahagathbandhan - h worked with Nitish Kumar for his election campaign in 2015. Later in September 2018, on vice of n BJP chief Amit Shah, Kishor was inducted as vice president of Nitish Kumar's JDU. Following his induction in 2019, JDU fared extremely well in Lok Sabha polls along with ally BJP, completely decimating Lalu Pras Yav's RJD.

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After Central government passed contentious citizenship amendment act in December, Kishor openly spoke against BJP. He t only questioned former BJP chief Amit Shah but went on submit his resignation, which sources said was rejected by Nitish Kumar. However, after warning Kishor for his anti-party statements, Kumar finally expelled him from party. Since n RJD has sent multiple feelers to Kishor to join m, but he is yet to respond.

Kishor's successful poll campaigns include n-Gujarat CM Modi's 2012 election bid and Modi's debut PM bid in 2014. Kishor helped Congress' Capt Amarinder Singh win Punjab Assembly polls in 2017 and Jagan Mohan Reddy win his maiden CM term in 2019. After falling out with Modi-Shah duo in 2019, poll strategist helped Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal secure a fourth term.

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18:48 IST, November 16th 2020