Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar begins 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign in Patna
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar went knocking on doors in Patna today as he launched "Har Ghar Dastak," an ambitious door-to-door campaign for the state elections to be held later this year.
"All the members of our party are trying to reach all the homes in Bihar. Our agenda is to reach one crore homes," Mr Kumar said. In the next few days, about 10 lakh workers of his party, the Janata Dal (United) will knock on doors and talk to people. After a household has been contacted, the home will be marked with a Nitish Kumar sticker.
The new 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 custom-made 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.
But for Nitish Kumar Mr Kishore, who belongs to Bihar, reportedly assesses that voters in the state will prefer direct contact to hi-tech campaigns. The campaign is also aimed at energising JD(U) workers. It 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.
The Janata Dal United will first test ground for 10 days with the new campaign and then collect feedback, which will be analysed before the next round is launched.