Nitish Kumar Embarks on Image Makeover with Poll in Sight
Bihar CM at an official function in Patna on Friday. Image credit Bihar Info Dept
Nitish Kumar Splurging on Social Media Campaigns: Tejashwi yadav
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, December 14: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is bracing up for next year’s Assembly elections. He is in midst of an image makeover push. Kumar will be hoping to be a five-time lucky in the next year’s Assembly elections.
The Bihar Chief minister after his first success in the 2005 state polls is gearing up the Janata Dal (United) for the October Assembly elections next year. Kumar is evidently making the best out of the gains over the dependency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on him for survival in New Delhi.
His former apprentice and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav released a reply given to an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) wherein the state government admitted spending a large sum on social media campaign and public relations through private firms.
“Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will spend ₹12 crore for publicity on social media, etc., in the name of women and ₹12 crore for tea and snacks from the government treasury to improve his tarnished image. Apart from this, ₹12 crore will also be given to a PR company,” said Yadav while sharing the RTI reply.
Kumar counts on women vote base in elections. Women voters have been mainstay of the electoral politics of the Bihar chief minister since he launched his party Samata Party which afterwards was reborn as the JD (U).
Yadav hit out at the Bihar chief minister for his mocking the RJD leader’s promise of creating 12 lakh government jobs in the state. The RJD leader reminded the Bihar chief minister’s irritation over his insistence on creating more government jobs while both were together in the government.
“The same person who claimed that there was no money to create 12 lakh government jobs is now splurging on social media campaigns, snacks, and private public relations agencies,” alleged Yadav.
The social media campaign had not previously been visible part of the JD (U) campaigns. The Bihar chief minister mostly banked on his pro-development image to win elections.
But the Bihar chief minister is now cautiously watching his friend turned foe Prashant Kishor. The election consultant is now building an anti-Nitish poll narrative with his Jan Suraj Party. Kishor’s name to fame is attributed widely to building ‘Brand Modi’ by milking the social media platforms.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a junior ally of the JD (U) in Bihar, is also raising the pre-poll heat. Modi has visited Bihar on at least three occasions in the last two months.
Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman was also in the Mithila region of Bihar. Modi too had visited the region, which had previously been the pocket borough of the RJD.
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