File picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Patna / Ahmedabad:
Prashant Kishor - a 37-year-old who flew in a few years ago from Africa to become a key member of the Narendra Modi campaign strategy team - is in Bihar, where elections will be held in a few months from now.
But Mr Kishor is reportedly not laying the ground for a new, innovative campaign for the Prime Minister. He trended on Twitter this morning after reports that he will be working on the campaign of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose rivalry with PM Modi is legendary.
Mr Kishor is credited with thinking up the wildly successful 'chai pe charcha' campaign for Mr Modi last year, turning a generic outreach programme into a branded activity, after Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar made a comment on Mr Modi's past as a tea-seller.
The Bihar elections pit Nitish Kumar in a direct confrontation with Mr Modi's BJP. Mr Kishor, who belongs to Buxar in Bihar, believes Nitish Kumar's prospects are better than the BJP's in the state, sources said.
Pavan Verma of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) said today, "As and when Mr Kishor joins us we will welcome him most gladly. He has expressed a desire to work with a leader of the future and stature like Nitish Kumar. He is so well versed in social media that he is an asset for whoever he works with."
After the national elections Mr Kishor reportedly took a year-long break to explore options and is said to still meet the PM.
Prashant Kishor set up the Citizens for Accountable Governance which leveraged social media to project and popularise Narendra Modi as the face of good governance for the 2012 Gujarat elections and later the national elections.
As a key ideator for the Modi campaign, Mr Kishor put together a team of professionals, mostly MBAs and Ivy League and IIT graduates.
Mr Kishor quit his job as a health official in the United Nations to join Mr Modi's team after meeting him in 2011.
But Mr Kishor is reportedly not laying the ground for a new, innovative campaign for the Prime Minister. He trended on Twitter this morning after reports that he will be working on the campaign of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose rivalry with PM Modi is legendary.
Mr Kishor is credited with thinking up the wildly successful 'chai pe charcha' campaign for Mr Modi last year, turning a generic outreach programme into a branded activity, after Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar made a comment on Mr Modi's past as a tea-seller.
The Bihar elections pit Nitish Kumar in a direct confrontation with Mr Modi's BJP. Mr Kishor, who belongs to Buxar in Bihar, believes Nitish Kumar's prospects are better than the BJP's in the state, sources said.
Pavan Verma of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) said today, "As and when Mr Kishor joins us we will welcome him most gladly. He has expressed a desire to work with a leader of the future and stature like Nitish Kumar. He is so well versed in social media that he is an asset for whoever he works with."
After the national elections Mr Kishor reportedly took a year-long break to explore options and is said to still meet the PM.
Prashant Kishor set up the Citizens for Accountable Governance which leveraged social media to project and popularise Narendra Modi as the face of good governance for the 2012 Gujarat elections and later the national elections.
As a key ideator for the Modi campaign, Mr Kishor put together a team of professionals, mostly MBAs and Ivy League and IIT graduates.
Mr Kishor quit his job as a health official in the United Nations to join Mr Modi's team after meeting him in 2011.
