Patna: Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who joined the JDU on Sunday, has been associated with Bihar politics for just about four years. But within that short span of time, he has made his mark - specially after becoming the talk of the country when he was credited with playing a key role in the electoral success of Narendra Modi in 2014.
Soon after, Nitish Kumar hired Kishor's services for the 2015 Bihar Assembly election. Kishor played an important role in shaping the JDU's strategy, and was the brain behind the campaign built around the catchline, Bihar mein bahar hai Nitishey Kumar hai.
Hailing from Bihar's Rohtas district, Kishor began his career as a public health activist and worked with the United Nations for several years. His work also includes serving in an aid mission in Chad, Africa.
Kishor, who always maintained a low profile and kept himself behind the curtain, has coined several slogans for Nitish and played a pivotal role in building the chief minister's image. Some of the slogans he came up with in 2015 were: Apradh mukt rahe Bihar, phir ek baar Nitish Kumar (Crime free Bihar, once again Nitish Kumar), Bahut hua jumlo ka vaar, phir ek baar Nitish Kumar (Enough of gimmicks, once again Nitish Kumar) and Dhimi na pade vikas ki raftar phir ek bar Nitish Kumar (Development should not slow down, once again Nitish Kumar).
After the victory in 2015, he was made adviser (policy programme and implementation) to Nitish and later Kishor conceptualised the state government's Bihar Vikas Mission and was incorporated as a governing body member into it.
However, after Nitish switching from the Grand Alliance to the National Democratic Alliance, Kishor stopped being an adviser to the chief minister. But in May this year, Nitish re-united with Kishor in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
When the Grand Alliance existed, RJD chief Lalu Prasad used to act friendly with Kishor and used to call him Panditji but was never really enamoured with his work. Kishor used to visit 10 Circular Road residence too meet Lalu as an emissary of Nitish in the early days of the Grand Alliance government.
Wile Nitish used Kishor extensively, the RJD boss campaigned in his own style and Kishor had no contribution to the RJD emerging as the single-largest party.
Behind closed doors, many RJD leaders used to mock Kishor - declaring that it is not Lalu and not Kishor who is the world's best political strategist who can read the mind of the voters at first sight.
