Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on August 19 sought a feedback from Twitterati on the latest term in office of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with whom he has had a long collaboration.
Mr. Kishor launched an online poll on his official Twitter handle, asking users to vote yes or no, to his query, in Hindi.
“This is the sixth experiment (prayog) by Nitish Kumar in the last 10 years towards government formation. Do you think, this time, the people of Bihar stand to benefit?”, asked Mr. Kishor.
The founder of IPAC, a political consultancy group, who gave up his previous avatar to carry out a campaign “Jan Suraaj”, which could evolve into a Bihar-centric political party, has been skeptical of the new formation that has come into being with Mr. Kumar dumping the BJP and joining the Mahagathbandhan comprising RJD, Congress and the Left.
Mr. Kishor, who had played a key role in the previous Mahagathbandhan which came into being in 2015 but came apart within a couple of years, has been raising doubts over the durability of the gigantic, seven-party coalition.
He has been of the view that the Grand Alliance could, at the most, survive till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but was likely to unravel before the Assembly elections that would be due a year later.
While refraining from BJP’s “return of jungle raj” chorus, Mr. Kishor has nonetheless, advised caution in assessing the new coalition’s impact on national politics.
