File photo of Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will on Thursday launch "Har Ghar Dastak, (a knock on every door)," an ambitious campaign through which his Janata Dal United aims to reach three crore voters for the state elections to be held later this year. Yes he will knock himself.
The outreach has been designed by strategist Prashant Kishor, who was earlier a key member of the team that built innovative campaign strategies largely based on the use of social media for Nitish Kumar's arch rival the BJP's Narendra Modi, now Prime Minister.
Mr Kishor clearly delivers customised solutions. His strategy of traditional, on-ground electioneering for Nitish Kumar in Bihar is very different from the clutter-busting techniques that were used for Mr Modi's campaign in the last Gujarat elections and later the national elections.
For Mr Modi, Prashant Kishor had thought up innovations like the use of 3-d holograms at public rallies and the famous "chai pe charcha" outreach via video conferencing.
Nitish Kumar takes on a BJP determined to unseat him in Bihar, and for him Mr Kishor has planned a campaign that will see about 10 lakh JD(U) workers go door to door. After a household has been contacted, the home will be marked with a Nitish Kumar sticker.
The campaign has a new slogan and even a new song composed by Sneha Khandilkar, the popular music director of films like Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and the Gangs of Wasseypur series.
Nitish Kumar will start the campaign tomorrow from the Patna city area, seen as a BJP stronghold. The seat is held by the BJP's Nand Kishore Yadav.
The Janata Dal United will first test ground for 10 days with the new campaign and then collect feedback, which will be assessed, before launching the next round.