Prashant Kishor joins Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United)

Patna: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor joined Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in Patna today, months ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Kishor was inducted into the party by Kumar, who is also the national president of the JD(U), at the organisation’s state executive meeting.

Kumar welcomed Kishor into the party by presenting him with an angavastram (stole) and he was given a seat next to the chief minister at the state executive meet. It was not immediately known what role he has been assigned to in the party.

“Excited to start my new journey from Bihar!” Kishor tweeted. He had on 9 September denied rumours that he is joining politics.

A resident of Buxar district of Bihar, Kishor had shot to fame in 2014 when he managed the poll campaign for Narendra Modi, helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) post its best-ever electoral performance. A year later, he collaborated with the alliance of JD(U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress to give Kumar a third consecutive term as Bihar chief minister.

Kumar then appointed Kishor as his adviser and gave him a cabinet minister rank. Kishor thereafter worked with the Congress in Punjab where the party returned to power dislodging the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine which had been ruling the state for a decade. His collaboration with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, however, failed to bear fruit as it won less than 10 seats in the 403-member assembly.