Prashant Kishor Pandey, 37, who is being credited for ensuring the BJP’s debacle in the Bihar Assembly elections, is likely to be given an important advisory role by the Nitish Kumar government. Sources in the state government machinery said that Kishor is likely to help the government in making and executing policies for ensuring the state’s development.
Pandey, who can easily be called India’s first professional election strategist, tied up with the JDU in June, just months before the campaigning started to take on the BJP’s campaigning.
Sources said that the Nitish government is likely to ask Pandey to assist the government through a Patna based “think-tank” which will take shape soon.
Pandey, who had assisted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 general election campaign, is said to have come up with ideas like the 3D holographic projection, chai pe charcha campaign, and mass mobilisation for Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity and Vivekananda Yatra.
A Patna-based journalist, however, said it would be wrong to credit the JDU win entirely to Pandey. “There was a pro-Nitish wave and an anti-NDA wave. If it was not for this wave, would Kishor’s strategies have worked? Unlikely. Did he help Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi to defeat the BJP?” he asked.
“He has come to become one of Nitish’s closest associates now. The best thing about him is that he prefers staying in the background and showing results rather than beating his own drums through various medium,” a senior JDU MLA said.