Kishor, who has been vocal about his opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said Kumar needed to spell out whether he is with the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi or those who supported Nathu Ram Godse
Anwarul Hoda / Patna
Former JDU vice president and Election strategist Prashant Kishor today questioned the ideology of Nitish Kumar and his government’s development model.
He slammed Chief Minister for making ideological compromises to stay in an alliance with the BJP.
“Nitish-ji has always said that he cannot leave the ideals of Gandhi, JP and Lohiya…At the same time, how can he be with the people who support the ideology of Godse. Both cannot go together. If you want to stay with the BJP, I don’t have any problem with it but you cannot be on both sides,” he said at a press conference here.
“There has been a lot of discussion between me and Nitish-ji on this. He has his thought process and I have mine. There have been differences between him and me that the ideologies of Godse and Gandhi cannot stand together. As the leader of the party you have to say which side you are on,” he added.
In a direct assault on Kumar’s model of governance, Kishor said Bihar was the poorest state in 2005 and continued to be so. “There has been development in Bihar during the last 15 years, but the pace has not been as it should have,” he added.
Kishor, who has been vocal about his opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said Kumar needs to spell out whether he is with the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi or those who support Nathu Ram Godse.
Kishor had earlier initiated a forum ‘Youth in Politics (YIP)’ that has 2,38,054 members from Bihar, according to its official website. The website states that it is a first-of-its-kind pan-India platform for youth between 18 to 35 years of age to join active electoral politics under the mentorship of Prashant Kishor and I-PAC.
Kishor’s I-PAC has designed campaigns for Narendra Modi in 2014, Nitish Kumar’s JDU during 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, Congress in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in 2017, the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal bypolls in 2019 and for YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh in 2019.
Recently, he was roped in by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party for the campaign in the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections. The AAP won a thumping majority by winning 62 of the 70 assembly seats in the February 8 Delhi elections.