Nitish brought shame to Bihar when he touched feet of Modi: Prashant Kishor

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with having touched the feet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure his own continuance in power said Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor reported news agency PTIPrashant Kishor who has been running the Jan Suraaj campaign was addressing a public meeting in Bhagalpur on FridayPeople ask me why I am now criticising Nitish Kumar having worked with him in the past He was a different man back then His conscience had not been put up for sale said Kishor who had managed the JD U presidents election campaign in 2015 and formally joined the party two years later reported PTIThe leader of a state is the pride of its people But Nitish Kumar brought shame to Bihar when he touched the feet of Modi he alleged referring to the NDA meeting in Delhi last week reported PTIKumars JD U won 12 seats in Lok Sabha polls to emerge as the second largest ally of the BJP which failed to get a majority on its ownThere is so much talk about Nitish Kumar playing a key role in Modis return to power But how is the Bihar CM leveraging his position He is not using his clout to ensure benefits for the state He is touching feet to ensure that he remains in power with BJP support even after 2025 assembly polls Kishor said reported PTINotably Kishor had first shot into fame in 2014 for handling the spectacularly successful Lok Sabha poll campaign of Modi By the time he gave up political consultancy in 2021 Kishor had worked for several highprofile politicians including Mamata Banerjee Arvind Kejriwal and Jagan Mohan ReddyMeanwhile Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU on Friday announced its candidate for the Rupauli assembly constituency where the resignation of multipleterm MLA Bima Bharti has necessitated a bypollState JDU president Umesh Singh Kushwaha gave the party ticket to Kaladhar Prasad Mandal who had contested the 2020 assembly polls against Bharti as an independentBharti who had won the seat for JDU for the third time in a row quit the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to contest from Purnea as the RJD candidateHowever the seat was won by independent candidate Pappu Yadav while Bharti lost deposit and finished a distant third way behind the JDU runnersup Santosh Kushwaha who was defeated after two consecutive victoriesAccording to Kushwaha the candidature of Mandal has been approved by the chief minister who is also the JDUs national presidentThe choice seems to have been driven by a high concentration in Rupauli of Gangotas an extremely backward class to which Bharti also belongedBharti has indicated that she was unwilling to contest the bypoll but if the RJD decided to field its candidate she would lobby for the ticket for any of her family membersThe RJD has an alliance with the CPI which had contested the seat in 2020 The Left party has announced that it will contest the bypollThe last date for filing of nomination is June 21 and voting will take place on July 10With inputs from PTI