Prashant Kishor confirmed to NDTV that he will devote his strategy now to the re-election of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
Prashant Kishor, seen as one of the key ingredients of the special sauce of the innovative election campaign for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has a new boss.
Mr Kishor, 35, confirmed to NDTV on Thursday morning that he will devote his strategy now to the re-election of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose rivalry with the PM is legendary. Congress sources say that while he may not play it up, Mr Kishor has also worked in the past with Rahul Gandhi's team in Amethi.
"Nitish Kumar is one of the most credible politicians and is credited for establishing governance and rule of law in a challenging state like Bihar," Mr Kishor said in Patna.
Bihar will vote between September and October, the Election Commission has announced.
Mr Kishor trained as a public health expert and left his job in the United Nations in 2011, returning to India from Africa to form a team of young professionals called Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) who worked to project Mr Modi as the face of good governance for the Gujarat elections in 2012 and then the national election last year.
Mr Kishor is credited with some of the clutter-busting techniques and innovations of Mr Modi's campaign including the employment of 3-D holograms at public rallies.
Meanwhile, KL Sharma, an old Congress hand in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi's constituency, told NDTV how Kishore came to work with key members of Rahul Gandhi's team.
"I think he met him at his janta darbars and told him about his UN background, so Rahul Gandhi took him on," Mr Sharma told NDTV.
"When Rahul heard about his health expertise, he told him to work to improve the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi," said another Congress leader who did not wish to be named. "But it's not right to say he was part of Rahul's team - and he was only with us for a year." When NDTV spoke to Mr Kishor, he said that he did not work for Rahul Gandhi, or engage in any political work with the Congress and that his affiliation was limited to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust and the hospital it runs.