NEW DELHI: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday launched the 'Baat Bihar Ki' campaign and said he would work towards making Bihar one of the 10 best states in the country.

Targeting Nitish Kumar , Kishor said the ideological positioning of the JD(U) was the main cause of conflict with the chief minister and that the campaign, starting from February 20, will reach out to people who believe there is need of a new leadership in Bihar.

Addressing a press briefing, he said his relation with Nitish Kumar has not been purely political. "Nitish ji treated me like a son. I have immense respect for him. I will not question his decision. It was his prerogative to keep me in or out of the party," he added.

Saying that their differences did not start just a month ago, the political strategist added that the JD(U) was not taking a clear stand on the ideology of Gandhi and Godse. "For me Gandhi ji and Godse cannot go together," he added.

Kishor said the other point of contention was JD(U)'s decision to align with the BJP. "Nitish Kumar's positioning with respect to the BJP changed over the time. Bihar needs a firm leader."

"We also differed on the citizenship law ," he said.

"Development did take place in Bihar. But the pace of development wasn't fast enough to transform the state. Did Bihar get special status? Nitish Kumar urged the Centre to give central status to Patna university but it didn't happen," he said while taking a dig at the BJP.

The Nitish government failed to provide good education in Bihar, couldn't provide electricity at household-level, he said. "In various parameters, Bihar lags far behind all other states. Bihar was poorest state in 2005 and continues to be so. There is no one to question Nitish Kumar's governance model," Kishor said.

Kishor’s political advocacy group I- PAC handled Narendra Modi 's Prime Ministerial campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Nitish Kumar’s chief ministerial candidature in Bihar in 2015. Later, I- PAC worked for Congress in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. It also worked for Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.

Before I-PAC started working with Reddy’s YSR Congress, Kishor was inducted into JD(U) in September 2018 and made party’s national vice-president a month later.

Though JD(U) national president Nitish had called Kishor “future of politics”, things came to such an extent between the two in little over a year that the latter was removed from JD(U) on January 29 on charges of crossing party lines by making statements against Nitish.



In Video: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor begins new innings with 'Baat Bihar Ki'