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| English: Image of Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
No one quite expected the country to transform suddenly and shake off the legacy of the past. But there was a widespread expectation that since Modi was 'clean' and 'strong' - as opposed to Manmohan Singh who was 'clean' but 'weak', the government would remain clean. This is what the PM capitalised on when he said the absence of scams was a sign 'ache din' had arrived during the first anniversary celebrations. ....... Irrespective of the rhetoric, both Congress and BJP have been closely enmeshed with capital. Democratic politics as we practice, needs money. Elections are expensive business. Politicians accumulate wealth which they invest in businesses, or outsource to certain businessmen to manage. Businessmen hope they have backed the right horses and when the time comes, they can reap rewards for their investment. This is not specific to India, but has been an established fact across the world. Quid pro quo exists. ......... The question is if political systems are able to institute a degree of transparency (for instance, make public all the funding that is received or have state funding for parties in elections); regulation (for instance, restrict the amount of funding; keep close track of transactions; legalise lobbying); reduce the extent of discretionary decision making in government; and have strong avoidance of conflict of interest laws..........To give credit where its due, the Modi sarkar has recognised that it is in natural resource allocation that discretion and crony capitalism is most acute - they have made an effort to correct this partly through cleaner spectrum and coal allocations. But there are a range of other sectors where discretion is rampant. Cricket is an obvious example where a deeply unhealthy relationship exists between politics as money and glamour - the PM himself is a part of this nexus as a former president of the Gujarat Cricket Association. The line between encouraging a business friendly environment (a stated goal of this government) and between encouraging select, friendly businessmen is a thin one. And BJP, like its predecessors, under the garb of the former, does not shy away from doing the latter.Narendra Modi goes from 7.5% to 10% --- that is where.
A public health expert, Kishor had left his job with the United Nations in 2011 and joined a team of young professionals who worked on the Modi campaign for nearly three years. Many have credited him with being the architect of 'chai per charcha' and 3D hologram campaign which contributed significantly to Modi's election victory..... 37-year-old Kishor along with some 60 other professionals had set up Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), initially to galvanise votes for Modi and later to address social issues. ....... he brings certain expertise in the area of communication and social media .... Kishor also made it clear that he was working for Modi and not BJP .... he had fallen out with the BJP leadership and party president Amit Shah.Key member of Modi’s poll campaign team likely to work for Nitish Kumar
Prashant Kishor - a 37-year-old who flew in a few years ago from Africa to become a key member of the Narendra Modi campaign strategy team ....... Mr Kishor, who belongs to Buxar in Bihar, believes Nitish Kumar's prospects are better than the BJP's in the state ... He is so well versed in social media that he is an asset for whoever he works with. .... Mr Kishor put together a team of professionals, mostly MBAs and Ivy League and IIT graduates.Prashant Kishor: Man pivot of PM Narendra Modi campaign in talks to help steer JD(U) in Bihar election
Kishor, 37, one of the prime movers of Citizens for Accountable Governance, an outfit modelled on the US-style political action committees that act as force multipliers to political campaigns in that country, is all set to project and define Kumar as an antithesis of Modi in the upcoming Bihar elections, possibly using the very tools used to build up the former Gujarat chief minister to try and knock him down. His entry into the Bihar political arena could also herald a new form of campaigning replete with its strong reliance on data analytics, branding and communication strategies hitherto unseen in a state known more for complicated caste arithmetic and use of muscle to win elections. ...... Kishor, a former public health specialist with the UN who left his job to work pro bono for Modi in 2011 ...... "The work that he would be doing...would be something to make the election strategy data-driven, a professional campaign that Bihar has never seen till now," said Tyagi, adding that Kumar's soon-to-be-underway campaign would involve public meetings in all districts "wherein we are showing video clips of Modi making promises and Nitishji will then make (people) understand how the promises were fake as the Centre is not doing anything for the state". ........... Kishor, who is a native of Balia, a district in Uttar Pradesh that borders his new expected theatre of operations. But it could also pit him head-to-head against Modi's more formidable electoral strategist and Lok Sabha elections victory lynchpin, BJP President Amit Shah ....... Kishor, seen as the key architect of the 'Chai Pe Charcha' and 3D hologram campaigns, earned the ire of many senior BJP figures and is said to be particularly disliked by Shah. Sources close to Shah believe Kishor exaggerated his importance in the Modi campaign. After the Lok Sabha elections were over, Kishor was all but cut loose and had no role in the string of state elections that followed. ....... For Kumar, who broke off his party's long-term alliance with BJP in 2013 after the saffron party moved to project Modi as its PM candidate, a victory in the Bihar elections is essential for political survival.
A victory could catapult Kumar as a possible national figure around whom all non-BJP, non-Congress parties could coalesce.
...... For Kishor, an impressive showing by Kumar could mark sweet revenge for being unceremoniously dumped by Modi and BJP, and possibly help build a reputation of a political consultant, a tribe that is non-existent in India. ...... Kishor was one of the most important people in Modi's team driving strategies for months before 2014 elections. "The strategies by him and his group galvanised the middle class and upper middle class to vote for BJP. It was their efforts that sold Modi as a moderate leader focussed on development, a 'Vikas Purush', thereby shedding his image of an aggressive Hindu right wing leader." .... "But there was hardly any acknowledgement of those services. Modi took the assistance of many such people who had no ideological moorings. Kishor and CAG were not an ideological extension of Modi or BJP but professionals that Modi engaged for a service they were good at providing" ....... Kishor at one point was so close to Modi that he could surpass most bureaucrats to get his work done. "Modi was struck by the way he presented the hologram technique to him. Kishor was a man of technology and strategy, something Modi needed the most at the time. At one point, Kishor had his ears, but he also made enemies among other trusted aides of Modi. ........ Several other entities with names such as Centre for Foundation for a Better India, Citizens for Programme Delivery Transformation and IPAC have come up, most of which claim to bring together young professionals for sustainable change. These have all come up under a Citizens' Alliance umbrella that Kishor is said to mentor and monitor. Many of those associated with projects anchored by Kishor say in the months after the elections, there was not much acknowledgement of their contribution by BJP or the PM ....... "We had left high-paying jobs to be associated with Modi, but after elections, there was not much challenge for many of us. Modi's win was due to a good mix of modern and traditional methods to reach out to voters. That magic started shrinking with state elections, and especially when BJP failed in Delhi, it proved that political parties need a professional push and that traditional door-to-door campaigns alone can't work anymore" ...... many in BJP and RSS, especially those close to Shah, claim the work done by Kishor was often exaggerated. "The party managed victories in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra without the support of professionals. The groundwork by party workers is often ignored when they say 2014 was entirely driven by them (Kishor and team). Even the data and inputs they needed were provided by party and Sangh cadre"
A reticent person, Kishor joined Team Modi in early 2012 - almost a year before the assembly elections in Gujarat. One of his first assignments was to hire a taxi and move around Gujarat - something Kishor did diligently - to smell the ground. ..... For a good six months after he silently started operating from Modi's official CM bungalow in Gandhinagar, even senior party leaders had little idea of who this bespectacled young man was. It was only by mid-2012 that BJP officials and bureaucrats started taking Kishor seriously. He became a part of almost every poll-related meeting. ...... Game-changing initiatives like Modi's 3-D hologram, chai pe charcha and the build-up to the Statue of Unity were all Kishor's brainchild. But what helped Modi and BJP the most was the parallel mechanism which Kishor set up - an NGO by the name of Citizen .... Most people around Modi believed Kishor would get a good role once Modi became PM. However, amid the victory celebration, Kishor quietly faded away. Insiders say Modi's decision to push Kishor aside was largely influenced by party chief Amit Shah, who, sources said, not very fond of the young man. ..... "Modi had started assigning jobs to Kishor which normally Shah would execute. Many bureaucrats and senior party men too did not appreciate that he had become Modi's bridge to the world," says a Gujarat BJP official. ...... Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey said Kishor might be in touch with Nitish. "They are professionals and work for money. Kishor had a team. We've not contacted him. Even we are roping in professionals who worked for other parties in Jharkhand elections," Pandey said.JD(U) to rope in man behind 'chai pe charcha'
Nitish Kumar, who is leaving no stone unturned to stall the BJP in Bihar assembly election due in September-October this year. ....... However, Bihar water resources and IPRD minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary did not give much weight to any such individual. "In Bihar, those who voted for Narendra Modi have already decided to vote for Nitishji in assembly election. I don't know this gentleman, so I cannot say anything about him," Choudhary, a close confidant of Nitish, told TOI.PM Modi's key campaign team member likely to join Nitish
"The kind of work I do it is natural for people to approach," he added when asked if he would join Kumar's campaign team ahead of Bihar polls.Nitish Kumar doles out projects thick and fast
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has gone on an inauguration and foundation laying spree with the state staring at Assembly polls. ...... the inauguration of 49 police stations across the state..... After assuming office for the second time in 2010, Nitish had launched scores of projects, majority of which are nearing completion. The chief minister wants to assure the projects' completion before the model code of conduct is enforced...... Nitish also claimed to have whetted the hunger for development in Bihar by completing the projects on time. "Nobody can befool the people with empty promises now," he said while inaugurating a bridge recently.He wasted the entire year: Nitish Kumar on Narendra Modi
Appreciating a child who said at the programme of Chaurasia (betel trading caste) that he wished to become the prime minister of the country, Nitish commented, "When a chaiwala can become prime minister why not a paanwala (betel seller)?" ....... In an apparent dig at PM's frequent foreign tours, he said in a lighter vein, "It's good that he gets some time to be in the country."JD(U), RJD tussle over seat-sharing; Lalu demands 145, Nitish taunts saying all 243 available
RJD has already dismissed any chances of Janata Parivar merger ahead of Bihar polls, with Lalu saying forming an alliance would be the best option. ...... A senior JD (U) leader said RJD has been trying to play “big brother” in the alliance. “Such posturings would continue from either side, but is frought with danger of impression of fissures in Janata Parivar,” said the leader.Seat-sharing row could make Bihar polls a crowded contest
the ‘secular’ parties, opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, appear to be in total disarray in the state. ...... With the differences between CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad coming to the fore over the seat-sharing formula after their failure to unite the Janata Parivar parties, the Bihar polls are likely to be a multi-cornered contest. ........ The RJD leaders have already indicated that they would not like to override the sentiments of their party cadres. .... Lalu and Nitish had earlier hoped for a grand alliance of all secular-minded parties on one platform, but their hopes have already been dashed. .... The Left front consisting of the CPI, CPM and the CPI (ML) has already resolved to fight the polls on their own. ......The Congress is yet to make up its mind whether it will go it alone in the polls or join forces with Lalu or Nitish if their unity bid comes a cropper. ....... But several party leaders have already apprised the high command that it should contest the polls independently instead of compromising its ‘national identity’ by accepting a negligible role with an alliance with Lalu-Nitish or either of them.
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| English: Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, India, speaks during the welcome lunch at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2008 in New Delhi (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
the contest to watch out for will be the battle for Bihar next year for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will personally monitor the campaign preparations
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| Flag of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a national political party in India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
