Prashant Kishor's rise in JD(U) may trigger power struggle within the party

With Prashant Kishor joining JD (U), Nitish now has a dependable poll manager for 2019 and 'direct line' to BJP leadership for seat-sharing talks. But everyone in the party isn't happy

It was in early 2015 that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked political strategist Prashant Kishor to manage his re-election bid in the assembly election that year. As Kishor set up camp at Kumar’s residence in Patna, it is said that the chief minister sent his tailor to stitch a few white kurta-pyjamas for his poll manager. Kishor objected to it — as he was not a politician, he didn’t need the whites. Kumar, however, insisted. “Oh! But you are. You would need them,” Kumar reportedly told him with a smile.

Three years later, Kumar, also national president of the