Bhagalpur, Bihar:

Political strategist turned activist-politician Prashant Kishor on Friday charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with having “touched the feet” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure his own continuance in power.

Prashant Kishor, who has been running the ‘Jan Suraaj’ campaign, was addressing a public meeting in Bhagalpur.

“People ask me why I am now criticising Nitish Kumar, having worked with him in the past. He was a different man back then. His conscience had not been put up for sale,” claimed Mr Kishor, who had managed the JD(U) president’s election campaign in 2015 and formally joined the party two years later.

“The leader of a state is the pride of its people. But Nitish Kumar brought shame to Bihar when he touched the feet of PM Modi,” he alleged, referring to the NDA meeting in Delhi last week.

Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) won 12 seats in Lok Sabha polls to emerge as the second largest ally (after TDP) of the BJP which failed to get a majority on its own.

Prashant Kishor claimed, “There is so much talk about Nitish Kumar playing a key role in PM Modi’s return to power. But how is the Bihar CM leveraging his position? He is not using his clout to ensure benefits for the state. He is touching feet to ensure that he remains in power, with BJP support, even after 2025 assembly polls.”

Notably, Mr Kishor had first shot to fame in 2014 for handling the spectacularly successful Lok Sabha poll campaign of PM Modi.

By the time he gave up political consultancy in 2021, Mr Kishor had worked for several high-profile politicians, including Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Jagan Mohan Reddy.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)