BJP out to claim its share in Bihar: Kishor on Nitish's exit as CM

Patna: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Saturday alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was giving up his post since the BJP, which has been in power at the Centre and had played a key role in securing a "manufactured mandate" for the NDA in the assembly polls last year, was out to "claim its share".

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function organised here on the occasion of Eid, Kishor reiterated that Kumar, who heads the JD(U), was "physically and mentally unfit" for ruling the state.

"I cannot say whether Nitish Kumar is leaving of his own accord or whether he is acting under pressure. But, in a way, I stand vindicated. I was being pilloried ahead of the assembly polls when I had predicted that even if the NDA wins, he will not be made the chief minister," said Kishor, who is a former JD(U) vice president.

The 47-year-old also said, "My prediction that the NDA could lose may have been off the mark. But about Nitish Kumar, who is visibly unfit, physically and mentally, I have been proven right. Why else would a chief minister step down barely a few months after his coalition got a brute majority in the assembly?".

The IPAC founder, whose first claim to fame was his handling, in 2014, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll campaign, which was a spectacular success, added that the mandate the NDA had got in the last Bihar elections was a "manufactured one".

"Votes were bought by doling out Rs 10,000," he alleged.

The allusion was to Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, rolled out days ahead of announcement of the poll schedule, under which Rs 10,000 each were transferred into the accounts of over 1.50 crore women.

In a tongue-in-cheek remark, Kishor also said, "The ruling BJP at the Centre, the union home minister and the Election Commission must have played their own roles in securing the huge mandate for the NDA. So, it is hardly surprising that the party ruling the Centre wants to claim its share in Bihar".

Speculations are rife that after Kumar, who recently got elected to the Rajya Sabha, moves to Delhi, the BJP will have its chief minister, for the first time ever, in Bihar.

However, when Kishor was asked to hazard a guess on who could occupy the seat of power, he declined with the sheepish remark, "My prediction about my own party had proven wrong in the assembly polls".

The poll strategist, who gave up political consultancy in 2021, shortly after helping TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee secure a third consecutive term in West Bengal with a thumping majority, refused to make any predictions about the elections in the neighbouring state.

"I took up political activism to build a much-needed alternative for Bihar, my home state. I tried my best in the last elections, and taking the drubbing of the Jan Suraaj Party on the chin, I have hit the streets again. I will not think of other states until my mission is accomplished in Bihar," said Kishor.

Asked about the political entry of Nishant, the son of Nitish Kumar, he replied that all, in a democracy, have the right to enter public life.

"We offer our best wishes, though it is just yet another instance of a leader in Bihar promoting his offspring," he added.